SPD politician Ecke details moments from the physical assault.
Matthias Ecke, a political figure from the SPD, talks about his recent attack in an interview. Though his injuries are healing daily, he still needs to process the experience in the long run. He refuses to be silenced by the incident and plans to resume his election campaign if his recovery allows.
A week after being assaulted, Matthias Ecke, a candidate for the SPD in Saxony, expressed his desire to rejoin the election campaign. In an interview with the newspapers "Freie Presse," "Leipziger Volkszeitung," and "Sächsische Zeitung," he stated, "I won't let this attack keep me quiet. I've been struck, but I'm not intimidated." If his healing process allows, he hopes to attend meetings next week.
Ecke informed the press that his health is improving day by day, but he still feels some pain. He currently doesn't feel any sense of reduced security. Nonetheless, he must assess how he handles the experience in the long term. Last Friday, Ecke sustained facial fractures while hanging posters in Dresden.
Sudden attack
According to Ecke, the assault was swift, lasting only a few seconds. He recounted being asked a provocative question about why he was putting up an SPD poster and then immediately being struck. He believes that the rising social hostility has prompted some individuals to take the law into their own hands.
Ecke discussed feeling a sense of déjà vu, as he was reminded of the 1990s, when neo-Nazis created environments of fear. His former acquaintances and party friends echoed the sentiment. Even the medical staff treating him on Friday recalled similar experiences during that time. The AfD has contributed to this shift in social norms, he argued. "We're dealing with a manufactured desensitization and organized brutality that the AfD has fostered in conjunction with other structures of the far-right, such as the Free Saxons and the Identitarian movement." He claims this level of violence during election campaigns is unprecedented.
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In a distressing turn of events, the assault on SPD politician Matthias Ecke in Saxony's Dresden has sparked concerns about rising crime levels. Ecke, who is running for office, strongly accused the far-right party AfD and its affiliated groups of fueling social hostility, leading to such violent incidents during election campaigns.
Source: www.ntv.de
