A 17-year-old German boy surrendered to the police in Dresden in the early hours of this Sunday, declaring himself the author of the attack on Social Democratic MEP Matthias Ecke, who was seriously injured. “The young man has no criminal record. The investigation into the other suspects, until now unknown, mentioned by witnesses, is still ongoing,” the Saxon police reported this Sunday on the social network X.
“On May 5, 2024, at around 1:00 a.m., a young man (17 years old, German) showed up at the Dresden-South police station and declared that he was the perpetrator who had attacked the SPD politician,” reported the Regional Investigation Office. (LKA) of the state of Saxony in a statement. Matthias Ecke, candidate for the European elections on June 9, was attacked on Friday night in Dresden while posting election posters and is seriously injured. Four individuals pounced on the 41-year-old politician and kicked and punched him.
According to the newspaper Bild, the young man who turned himself in went to the police station accompanied by his mother. The suspect is not in preventive detention because he is a minor, has a permanent address and has surrendered voluntarily. He is scheduled to be interrogated by the Police Center for the Fight against Terrorism and Extremism (PTAZ) in the presence of his lawyer.
Germany has been shocked by this case of political violence, which several parties attribute to the climate unleashed by the aggressive verbal virulence of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) formation. Associations against the extreme right have called for demonstrations this Sunday afternoon: in Dresden at 5 p.m. in the central Pohlandplatz, which is scheduled to be attended by the co-president of the SPD, Saskia Esken; and in Berlin at 6 p.m. in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
According to the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser plans to call a special conference with regional Interior officials to address violence against elected officials. According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against political representatives in Germany in 2023, compared to 1,806 recorded the previous year. However, the record occurred in 2021, when there were legislative elections, when there were 2,840 crimes of this type.
On the same Friday in Dresden, a 28-year-old Green volunteer, who was also putting up posters, was beaten by four people, and the police suspect that they are the same attackers who attacked Ecke. In a statement, the Greens explained that two teams putting up posters in the Saxon capital were “attacked and threatened”, and that one person was injured. Although the volunteer was also hit in the face and kicked, “thank God he was not as badly injured as Mr. Ecke and was able to return home after receiving outpatient treatment from the emergency services,” said Valentin Lippmann, a Green deputy in the Parliament of Saxony.
