As state elections approach in three eastern German states in September, similar reports of attacks are surfacing again.
Adeline Abimnwi Awemo, a Cameroon-born politician for the Christian Democratic Union, was racially abused and physically attacked while putting up election posters in the state of Brandenburg last week.
Only days before, Dirk Neubauer — an administrator in the state of Saxony, who is not affiliated to a party but understood to be left-leaning — resigned, citing threats from the far-right Free Saxony party and its followers.
Within national parliament, members of Habeck’s Green Party are the most frequent victims of attacks against lawmakers, according to statistics from the Bundestag. Last year, 1,219 of a total of 2,790 recorded cases affected politicians from the Greens. That comprises nearly 44 percent.
In light of the current situation, Habeck’s security protocol — which already requires him to be accompanied by bodyguards — has been tightened, Welt reported. His ministry declined to comment on this, citing security reasons.
Some emails in the Welt report contain clear death threats: “Your head will roll, you have the choice of whether it goes peacefully or whether we do it by force. We will hang you.”
