German Far-Right Politician Wounded In Knife Attack
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MANNHEIM, GERMANY (Worthy News) – A German far-right politician has been injured in a knife attack in the same German city where a police officer was fatally stabbed last week by a suspected Islamist extremist.
Heinrich Koch, who is a local council candidate for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), was attacked in Mannheim on Wednesday, party officials confirmed.
The politician needed stitches in his head and had a cut to his stomach, but the injuries were not life-threatening, they said.
Police said there were “no concrete indications” the suspect knew he was attacking a politician, but the party called it political violence.
“In Mannheim, our local council candidate Heinrich Koch was injured with a knife while confronting poster vandals,” said AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla, who was slightly injured in another attack last year at a campaign rally in the southern German state of Bavaria.
“Our members and representatives are the most frequent victims of political violence and destruction. That cannot stop us. Get well soon, Heinrich!” Chrypalla added on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
ATTACK CONDEMNED
Local AfD leader Markus Frohnmaier said he was “shocked and dismayed,” while Mannheim Mayor Christian Specht condemned the attack and said the “violence that is currently taking hold in our society is intolerable.”
The stabbing reportedly took place after Koch tried to keep a man from tearing down AfD electoral posters and was then attacked by him.
Wednesday’s violence came as Mannheim was still reeling from Friday’s knife attack by a suspected Islamist extremist that killed a young police officer and left five others injured.
On Monday, around 8,000 people gathered in the southwestern city to pay their respects to the 29-year-old policeman who, on Sunday, succumbed to injuries sustained from stab wounds.
Two dozen of the officer’s colleagues paid tribute to their fallen comrade, removing their hats during a gathering Sunday at the site of the attack.
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