The political race is growing progressively violent. - City councilors from the AfD and Greens in Halle face assaults.
In the city of Halle, on a Monday night, an unidentified individual or group of persons set fire to the house of a non-party political candidate who was running for a position on the AfD list in the local council elections. This incident is not the first case of harassment against politicians in the Halle area. A few days earlier, two Green Party candidates experienced a drunk person threatening them with a beer bottle at their campaign stand.
Saxony-Anhalt's Minister President, Reiner Haseloff, spoke out about the situation in an interview, expressing his concern over the deteriorating cultural environment and the escalation of hostility between parties. He mentioned that physical violence against politicians had not been this severe in the past.
Olaf Schöder, a former FDP councillor and an operatic singer, was the victim of the arson attack. Schöder had resigned from the FDP and had joined the AfD parliamentary group. Before that, he was an unattached member. He is running as a non-party candidate on the AfD list in the upcoming council elections on June 9th.
Schöder was residing in the Kröllwitz district when the attack occurred. He described the incident in detail, explaining how he heard the broken glass from the window and noticed a flame outside his door. Someone had thrown an incendiary device that ignited a doormat. He managed to extinguish it and called the police.
Shortly after, the police officers found another broken window in his living room. When he was telling the officers about the incident, there was yet another crash, this time on the other side of the house. A stone had smashed another window. The officers requested reinforcements and conducted a search using a tracking dog. The investigation was then taken over by the Halle police department's state security unit.
Schöder seemed to be prepared for this outcome. "When I see a non-banned party being disparaged, it's no wonder such hatred exists," he said. However, he was not deterred and expressed his intention to continue with politics. The police told him that they would ensure his safety in Saxony-Anhalt.
Meanwhile, on Friday, a 39-year-old man was banned from attending the Ziegelwiese event, where two Green Party councillors, Melanie Ranft and Wolfgang Aldag, were hosting their campaign stand. The man harassed the two councillors, getting closer and closer to Wolfgang Aldag while threatening him with a beer bottle. The police had to be called to help.
Wolfgang Aldag, who had a relatively calm encounter with an unarmed individual, viewed the experience as alarming. "We also had many other interesting encounters that day," Aldag said.
The Saxony-Anhalt police recorded a total of 234 attacks on politicians in 2023, representing a 72-case increase from the previous year. The FDP was the party with the most reported incidents (81 cases), followed by the SPD (52 cases) and the Greens (32 cases).
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Source: symclub.org
