At an election campaign event in Göttingen, state parliament member Marie Kollenrott (Greens) was attacked and slightly injured. A 66-year-old hit her several times in the upper body. State security is investigating.
Lower Saxony state parliament member Marie Kollenrott (Greens) was attacked and slightly injured at an election campaign event in downtown Göttingen. The police and the Green Party parliamentary group announced this on Saturday evening. According to the police’s current findings, a man hit the politician several times in the upper body at midday. According to police, Kollenrott suffered minor injuries to his arms. The officers arrested the suspected attacker shortly afterwards near the crime scene. They determined the 66-year-old’s identity and then released him. The state security agency has taken over the further investigation.
“We condemn the attack in the strongest possible terms,” said Green Party leader Anne Kura in the evening. “Physical attacks on democrats are an attack on our democracy. We are shocked, but we will not allow ourselves to be intimidated.” Violence should never be a means of political debate, said Kura.
According to initial findings, the man from Göttingen made derogatory comments about the Greens at the election campaign stand in a pedestrian zone near the Old Town Hall, according to the police. There is said to have been a short political discussion with the later victim. The man then approached the politician. He hit the woman in the upper body and walked away. The state parliament member and a witness reportedly gave chase and alerted the police.
Several attacks on politicians and campaign workers have caused horror across the country in recent weeks. In Dresden, SPD election campaigner Matthias Ecke was beaten until he was hospitalized, and local politician Yvonne Mosler (Greens) was jostled and threatened while hanging up election posters. In Berlin, after an attack on Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD), a suspect was temporarily placed in a psychiatric hospital. AfD politicians were also targets of attacks.