The left-wing radical militant group Antifa has claimed responsibility for an attack in Stuttgart on two Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) lawmakers. Miguel Klauß and Hans-Jürgen Goßner, two of the party’s members of the Baden-Württemberg regional parliament, were injured on Wednesday, May 8th, while campaigning in the city centre. .
The anti-immigration politicians had set up an AfD information stand as part of a festival celebrating the 75th anniversary of Germany’s 1949 constitution. Up to half a dozen left-wing activists arrived on the scene and held up a banner right in front of AfD’s booth, blocking its view. A scuffle ensued, insults were traded, and the two lawmakers were physically assaulted—one of them suffered head injuries, the other neck injuries, but neither required medical assistance.
Antifa—notorious for using physical violence to attack and intimidate people it disagrees with—proudly acknowledged that the assault had been committed by its members, calling their action a “creative disruption.”
Germany is facing a wave of attacks on politicians who are campaigning in June’s European elections, as well as three regional elections to be held in the eastern states of the country in the autumn. AfD members are the most frequently assaulted group, yet a recent attack against Social Democrat Matthias Ecke garnered the most attention from both mainstream parties and the media, who blamed AfD for “inciting hatred” and “sowing discord” in society.
Miguel Klauß criticised the media for not reporting on cases involving the AfD, or belittling such incidents by relegating stories to the regional section of news websites. “If someone from the SPD and Co. is hit with a gym bag, there are special broadcasts and press conferences,” he tweeted.
While Social Democrat (SPD) Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser did not denounce the attack on the AfD lawmakers, she denounced the beating of Ecke, saying “offenders who actively attack political activists must feel the full force of the law. That means swift, consistent proceedings and punishments.” Following the incident, Faeser called for a meeting with her state-level colleagues to discuss the rise of political violence across Germany.
The meeting was held on Tuesday, but did not go down well with the centre-right opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), according to a report by Die Welt. “Ms. Faeser is just making noises in public, but she doesn’t do anything to protect politicians,” a CDU interior minister told the publication, criticising their federal counterpart for doing nothing but giving her state-level colleagues half-baked advice on what they should be doing to address the problem of political violence.
The opposition party also criticised the fact that Faeser wanted to explain the conclusions of the meeting alone to the media at a press conference. The uproar forced the minister to cancel the media event and organise a new one, this time with the participation of CDU lawmakers.