Leftist stabs right-wing politician in German city where Islamic terrorist just went on a stabbing spree
With the European parliamentary elections just days away, radicals in the streets and in the media appear to have ramped up their attacks against right-wing politicians. The right-leaning Alternative for Germany, poised to secure new seats Sunday, is a popular target for such attacks.
On Tuesday evening, one radical slashed 62-year-old AFD politician Heinrich Koch with a carpet knife in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, roughly five miles away from where an Afghan migrant went on a stabbing spree Friday.
According to the German publication Junge Freiheit, Koch — a Rheinau district council member and an AFD candidate for Mannheim city council — spotted a leftist tearing down his campaign posters around 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, near the market square where Islamic terrorist Sulaiman Ataee murdered a police officer Rouven L., stabbed politician Michael Stürzenberger, and cut up four other anti-jihad demonstrators.
Footage of the incident shows Koch run over to confront the vandal tearing down the posters only to realize he was armed with a knife. Police indicated the 25-year-old suspect, who previously damaged and stole several election posters, stabbed Koch.
AFD Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier told Junge Freiheit that Koch was taken to the hospital with injuries to his stomach and face.
AFD cochairman Tino Chrupalla said in a statement, "Our members and representatives are the most frequent victims of political violence and destruction. That cannot stop us. Get well soon, Heinrich!"
Alice Weidel, cochairwoman of the AFD, assigned some blame to the AFD's leftist political opponents and the media, claiming they "are creating a climate in which even extreme physical attacks are no longer shied away from. We condemn this violence and call on people to finally return to the basic democratic practices!"
Markus Frohnmaier, the regional chair of the AFD, said, "It is unacceptable that this mental agitation against our party continues, with surveillance and an attempt to push us out of the democratic political consensus in Germany. Because incidents like the one in Mannheim are the result of this!"
Hans-Georg Maassen, former president of Germany's domestic security agency, similarly suggested the German left has set the stage for future attacks.
"We are currently seeing the seeds sprout," Maassen told Junge Freihei. "We must finally return to social reconciliation, and that can only work if the political left refrains from treating its opponents like enemies."
Mannheim Mayor Christian Specht, who previously intimated the anti-jihad demonstrators stabbed last Friday were partly responsible for their attacker's rampage, said in a statement Wednesday, "This cowardly act is abhorrent and cannot be justified in any way. Anyone who attacks election candidates is calling into question our free, equal, general, direct and secret elections — and thus the basis of our democracy."
"This despicable incident is one of a series of attacks on campaign workers and politicians that are currently being observed throughout Germany," continued Specht. "The hatred and willingness to use violence that are currently breaking out in our society are unbearable."
The AFD has drawn the ire of the left, in part, by criticizing the fallout of Germany's immigration policies and officials' refusal to deport criminal noncitizens.
For instance, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the AFD, generated outrage in 2021 for citing government statistics in an X post that showed Afghan and African asylum seekers disproportionately engaged in certain types of violent crimes. Despite the veracity of her statements, Kaiser was charged and convicted with incitement to hatred.
Weeks after her May appeal fell through, there were two instances of migrant knife attacks: one in Mannheim and another in the northeastern German town of Bergen.
In Sunday's election, EuroNews indicated that AFD stands to secure 15 seats in the European Parliament. A June 5 German voting intention poll showed AFD trailing the center-right Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance in second place.
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