A member of Germany’s rightwing Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) was injured in Mannheim yesterday evening only days after a police officer was killed in the same city after a knife attack.
According to Welt Heinrich Koch, who was campaigning in the area, suffered cuts in the incident before his assailant was arrested.
The incident is reported to have taken place at 10:45pm local time on Tuesday night.
According to the AfD the 62-year-old confronted a person who was allegedly tearing down a campaign poster before the individual attacked him with a knife.
Koch was hospitalised according to Bild and received stitches.
According to Welt a video which captured the incident given to German press agency DPA shows a young man with several Afd posters under his arm after allegedly taking them down.
The Afd reportedly described the incident as being carried out by ‘left wing extremists’ with several people involved.
Koch reportedly confronted the man with the posters under his arm and a scuffle ensued with the video allegedly showing the man swinging a bladed implement in his hand.
This comes just days after a police officer was stabbed to death by an Afghan migrant who attacked a gathering of Pax Europa.
Outspoken critic of Islam Michael Sturzenberger, 59 was the suspected target of the attack in which 6 people were injured.
The European Conservative reported that the attacker Sulaiman Ataee (25) is a failed asylum seeker.
“The perpetrator arrived in Germany in 2013 and his asylum application was rejected a year later. However, he remained in the country illegally for another nine years.” it says.
“In 2023, he received a temporary residence permit after fathering a child who automatically gained German citizenship. Revealed by German media on Monday to be an admirer of an Islamist preacher whose propaganda videos he shared on YouTube, Ataee is described as having grown a full beard between 2020 and 2023—a sign of commitment to strong religiosity in Islamist circles.”
The 29-year-old police officer sustained several stab wounds to his head and neck.
Emergency surgery was performed and the officer placed in an induced coma, however he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.
Ataee, who was shot by police at the scene, received treatment for his injuries and was placed under order of a judge as a suspect of attempted murder.
Reacting to the death of the young officer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the slain “police officer in Mannheim defended the right of all of us to express our own opinions.”
“If extremists want to restrict these rights by force, they must know that we are their toughest opponents. We will proceed with all the means of our constitutional state.” he added.
Der getötete Polizist in Mannheim hat das Recht von uns allen verteidigt, die eigene Meinung zu sagen. Wenn Extremisten diese Rechte gewaltsam einschränken wollen, müssen sie wissen: Wir sind ihre härtesten Gegner. Wir werden mit allen Mitteln unseres Rechtsstaates vorgehen.
— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) June 3, 2024