A candidate for the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, Heinrich Koch, was stabbed in Mannheim, Germany, during an altercation over election posters. This incident occurred on Tuesday evening and was confirmed by the police on Wednesday.
Koch, who is running for a local council seat, was reportedly attacked in the district of Rheinau, approximately five miles from the site of a recent fatal knife attack. Witnesses told local media that the attack happened after Koch confronted a group of individuals who were tearing down AfD posters for the upcoming local and European elections. He was allegedly stabbed in the stomach with a carpet knife.
Police confirmed that the attacker has been arrested and stated that more details would be made public throughout the day. Heinrich Koch is currently in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and is expected to be discharged on Wednesday, according to Rüdiger Ernst, the local head of the AfD. Ernst described the attacker as a “left-wing extremist,” though this has not been officially confirmed.
Markus Frohnmaier, the regional chair of the AfD, expressed the party’s horror and distress over the incident.
This attack follows a recent knife attack in Mannheim where a 25-year-old Afghan man, whose asylum claim had been rejected, stabbed several people. A 29-year-old policeman who intervened was fatally wounded, and Michael Stürzenberger, the leader of the group Pax Europa, remains hospitalized from the attack.
The European election campaign in Germany has been marked by sporadic violence against candidates. In May, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser vowed to combat the rise in violence against politicians after Matthias Ecke, a member of the European Parliament, was hospitalized following an attack during his re-election campaign. A campaigner for the Greens was also attacked while putting up posters, and former Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey was assaulted at a Berlin library event last month.
The atmosphere surrounding the election has been tense, with these incidents highlighting the volatility and danger faced by political candidates and their supporters.
