{"id":358990,"date":"2024-05-07T11:55:42","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T09:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/05\/07\/ecke-pestaggio-estrema-destra-germania\/"},"modified":"2024-05-10T17:11:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T15:11:28","slug":"the-beating-of-mep-ecke-may-have-ramifications-in-the-german-far-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/05\/07\/the-beating-of-mep-ecke-may-have-ramifications-in-the-german-far-right\/","title":{"rendered":"The beating of MEP Ecke may have ramifications in the German far right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Disturbing developments are beginning to emerge on the assault on\u00a0Friday (May 3)<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0the outgoing MEP and leading SPD candidate Matthias Ecke<\/strong> in Dresden, in the German state of Saxony; developments that were\u00a0feared and suspected in recent days, casting shadows on the intimidation strategy of far-right groups in Germany<\/strong> during the campaign ahead of the European elections in June. Die Zeit\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that police believe that at least one of the four people responsible for beating Ecke has far-right motives. It is still unclear whether an organized group coordinated the attack.<\/p>\n

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\"Germania<\/a>
(credits: Jens Schlueter \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 41-year-old politician was assaulted and kicked by four 17- to 18-year-old boys while he was putting up election posters in Dresden.<\/strong>\u00a0According to police reports, the\u00a0boys shortly before beat up on the same street a Green Party volunteer who was also putting up posters for his party. Investigators allegedly found evidence of right-wing extremism on the smartphone and in the apartment of one of the four boys<\/strong> who\u00a0turned himself in to police over the weekend after being\u00a0identified. The homes of the other three boys were also searched, and the seized\u00a0evidence is being analyzed.<\/p>\n

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\"Germania<\/a>
(credits: Ina Fassbender \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

“The violent behavior and intimidation of\u00a0democrats is a tool of the fascists.\u00a0We must call a spade a spade<\/strong>,” the SPD denounced in a statement<\/a>, recalling how – with the election campaign having barely begun a week ago – “we are already observing and experiencing a level of attacks that is not even remotely acceptable under any circumstance.” The reference is to the figure provided by the Saxony Interior Ministry, according to which,\u00a0in the first week of the June European election campaign, 51 politically motivated crimes<\/strong> were reported to the police, while since the beginning of the year, a total of 112 crimes –of which 30 were against officials or elected officials — have been reported in connection with local and European elections in the federal state of Germany. “This is an attack on the foundations of our democracy.\u00a0An unequivocal warning sign for all citizens of this country,” the German Social Democratic Party warned.<\/p>\n

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\"Germany<\/a>
MEP and leading SPD candidate in the German state of Saxony, Matthias Ecke, after the beating in Dresden on May 3, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

After the beating, Ecke was seriously injured and had to undergo surgery, but\u00a0the SPD confirmed his decision to continue campaigning<\/strong>. “I am overwhelmed by your closeness and solidarity.\u00a0It really does me good and gives me strength,” the MEP wrote in a post<\/a> on X, in which he showed his swollen face and black eye: “However, this is not just about me, but about all those who engage politically with passion. In a democracy, no one should be afraid to speak their mind<\/strong>.” All German parties expressed concern over the incident – including the radical right-wing Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland, a booth of which was attacked\u00a0in Dresden at the weekend – and denounced the “climate of fear” instilled by the far right<\/strong> in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Die Zeit reports, at least one of the four responsible for the May 3 attack in Dresden has a proven motive of right-wing extremism. “No one should be afraid to speak their mind in a democracy”, said the leading SPD candidate in the German state of Saxony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5647,"featured_media":358395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[25777,25778,26748,26476,27763,27786],"class_list":["post-358990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-european-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english-english","tag-europeanelections-2024-en","tag-european24-en","tag-strema-destra-germania-en","tag-matthias-corner-one","tag-spd-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358990"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":359141,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358990\/revisions\/359141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}