Police said that four unknown assailants beat MEP Matthias Ecke of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Dresden, eastern Germany, on Friday evening while he was putting up European Parliament election posters.
Mr Ecke, 41, was seriously injured and required surgery after the attack, his party said. Police confirmed he required hospital treatment.
“Such an act is a threat to democracy,” the chancellor told the Congress of European Socialist Parties in Berlin, adding that such attacks stemmed from “the discourse, the atmosphere, which is fueled by people’s antagonism.”
“We must never accept such acts of violence (…) We must resist it together,” he said.
The state security services leading the investigation emphasize that the police suspect a political connection.
“If it is confirmed that the attack was politically motivated in the weeks before the European Parliament elections, this serious act of violence will also be considered a serious offense against democracy,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
Mr Ecke, who is head of the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) European Union electoral list in the state of Saxony, has become the latest political target in Germany.
Police added that a 28-year-old man was beaten and kicked earlier on the same street in Dresden while putting up Green Party posters. Both attacks are suspected to have been carried out by the same individuals.
N. Faeser said that “extremists and populists are fueling the atmosphere of increasing violence.”
The SPD highlighted the far-right AfD [„Alternatyva Vokietijai“] party and other right-wing extremists’ role in heightening tensions.
“Their supporters are now completely unrestrained and clearly see us, the Democrats, as a game,” said regional SPD leaders Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel.
Two Green Party deputies were insulted and one punched in the face during an election campaign in the western German city of Essen on Thursday, police said.
Last Saturday in East Germany, dozens of demonstrators surrounded the car of Katrin Goering-Eckardt, the deputy speaker of the parliament, who is also from the Green Party. The politician could leave only after police reinforcements were called to the scene.
