Again in Mannheim, the city where a few days ago a similar incident occurred, but in the Rheinau district and under different circumstances. This time the victim is a candidate of the far-right party “Alternative for Germany” AfD for the municipal elections, which take place on Sunday together with the European elections. The incident happened late on Tuesday night at 10.45pm near the central square. Mannheim police officially confirmed only this morning that there was a police operation, more information was to be given later in the day.

Mental problems?

According to Bild, AfD candidate Heinrich Koch, 62, caught someone trying to tear down posters, apparently of his party, and tried to stop him. He was then attacked by 3 people, one of whom was holding a knife and injured him. He was arrested by the police, the other two managed to escape. The German News Agency has possession of the video Koch appears to have taken before he was attacked. It shows him running after a younger man in the square and shouting “Stop! Stop!”. The younger man was carrying several AfD campaign posters under his arm and probably had a knife in his hand. A fight then breaks out and the man lunges with the knife. The rest of the images are blurry. The AfD politician immediately called the police.

Until a while ago, they were in the hospital, where they got stitches, as announced by the local organization of the party, which spoke of an attack by left-wing extremists. “We are shocked and disappointed,” said Markus Frohnmeier, chairman of the party in the state of Baden-Württemberg. However, according to an announcement by the police and the prosecutor’s office, after the attack, the 25-year-old suspect was transferred to a psychiatric clinic, because during the arrest there were clear signs of mental illness. “According to the investigations so far, there are no concrete indications that the suspect realized that the injured person was an AfD politician when he carried out the attack.”

A moment of silence

Mannheim mayor Christian Specht strongly condemned the attack. “This cowardly act is despicable and cannot be justified,” he said. “Anyone who attacks election candidates calls into question free, equal, universal, direct and secret elections, and therefore the basis of our democracy. The incident is one of a series of attacks on campaign aides across Germany. The hatred and willingness to use violence that erupts in our society is unacceptable.”

A minute’s silence was observed at midday in the plenary session of the Parliament in memory of the police officer who was killed in the knife attack in Mannheim last week. “His death shocks us all deeply,” Speaker of the House Berbel Bass said at the start of the plenary debate earlier. “He died for our liberal democracy.”

Bild, DPA