2024-05-12 08:18:29
Just a few days after the attack on the SPD MEP Ecke, a politician was attacked again in Dresden – this time a Green.
Insulted, threatened, spat on – after the attack on SPD MEP Matthias Ecke, a politician was once again attacked while hanging up posters in Dresden. Yvonne Mosler, Green Party‘s leading candidate for city council in constituency 11 (Gorbitz/Cossebaude), was traveling with co-leading candidate Cornelius Sternkopf when the incident occurred on Tuesday evening in Dresden-Gorbitz, the Dresden Greens reported on Wednesday. Shortly after the attack, police said they were called to the scene and arrested a 24-year-old and a 34-year-old as suspects. As in the Ecke case, they presumably come from the right-wing spectrum.
She was still a bit shocked after the incident, but basically she was doing well, Mosler told the German Press Agency on Wednesday. She described the attack as very surprising. According to the party, Mosler and Sternkamp ran an information stand on Merianplatz with campaign workers. This went well, said Mosler. “I can’t say that we were treated violently in any way or that there were situations in which we felt very uncomfortable.”
Two media teams from Deutsche Welle and “Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung” accompanied the team because they wanted to document the deployment of campaign workers after the attack on SPD MEP Matthias Ecke and a member of the Green Party last Friday. In their eyes, it was a completely harmless situation, said Mosler.
“We don’t want you here”
Mosler reported that a lot of time was taken when hanging a poster because of the photographers present. Meanwhile, from a group about 100 meters away, which had already “greeted” the team with the Hitler salute when they arrived, a man ran towards them, pushed them aside and tore down the poster. “We don’t want you here in the district and you don’t need to hang up posters,” he shouted. “We’ll tear it down anyway and you have no business here.” The man returned to his group for the time being, but Mosler and her team decided to break off. However, the attacker returned with a companion.
What happened next can be seen in a 40-second video shared by Deutsche Welle on X. In it, a man and a woman – both dressed in black and with their hoods pulled up, the woman also wearing a baseball cap – approach the politician, her team and the journalists very aggressively.
They repeatedly asked Mosler to delete a photo of the man. During the argument, the woman spits in the politician’s face and insults her. The man pushes one of Mosler’s companions when he tries to stand in front of them.
Suspects arrested shortly after the incident
According to a statement, the police were able to find the suspects in the immediate vicinity shortly afterwards. The 34-year-old is being investigated for bodily harm, threats, insults and damage to property, and the 24-year-old German is being investigated for bodily harm. Since their group is said to have chanted the Hitler salute, they are also being investigated for using the symbols of unconstitutional organizations. Both suspects remained at large, a police spokesman said.
“The perpetrators wanted to publicly declare their own neighborhood a no-go area for the Greens,” said the spokesman for the Greens in Dresden, Klemens Schneider, according to the statement. “Their ranting hatred and ruthlessness in front of the cameras are repulsive and shocking.” After the cell phone photo was deleted and the police arrived, the situation calmed down. According to the party, there were seven of the team traveling in daylight and apparently accompanied by five journalists.