Mayor of Hockenheim, a city in southwest Germany, was left bloodied and hospitalized after an unknown assailant punched him. Amid a sharp rise in threats to the political elite, one politician has already died. Reports suggest that such attacks are becoming more common.
Dieter Gummer, a member of the notoriously pro-migrant left-wing Social Democratic Party, answered his door on Monday evening to find an unfamiliar face outside. The visitor heavily punched the 67-year-old politician in the face, according to police in nearby Ludwigshafen.
Gummer fell on the floor and hit his head, requiring treatment in hospital. The culprit fled the scene. The attacker was unknown to the mayor and is described by police as a man of slim build, around 40 years old, with dark skin. Police in the southern German town says they’re baffled as to the motive and are“investigating in all directions.”
However, across Germany, rage and violence against public officials are on the rise. Last year, more than 1,200 threats, criminal insults, and acts of physical violence were committed against officials, Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung, who also chairs the German Association of Cities, told a meeting of concerned mayors last week. Nearly all German states have reported sharp yearly increases in violence since at least 2017.
At the meeting, the mayors described how rude comments in public and on social media would progress to action. They told of finding the wheel nuts loosened on their cars, discovering rifle cartridges on their doorsteps, and receiving death threats in their mailboxes.
“The people in my administration are afraid to open their doors,”said one Bavarian mayor, quoted by Der Tagesspiegel.“This cannot be.”
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