German politician attacked while putting up posters

BERLIN (AA) - Matthias Ecke, a Social Democratic Party (SPD) member of the European Parliament was reportedly seriously injured in an attack in Dresden, Germany.

Ecke (41), the party's candidate for the EP elections in the state of Saxony, was attacked while putting up posters, according to SPD Saxony.

MEP Ecke, who was seriously wounded in the attack, needed surgery, it added.

"Our democratic values are under attack," Hennig Homann and Kathrin Michel, co-chairs of the party in Saxony, said in a joint statement, adding that the attack was an alarm signal for everyone in the country.

Condemning the attack, SPD co-chairs Saskia Esken and Lars Klingbeil also said: “The perpetrators want to intimidate us as representatives of democratic society, but they will never succeed.”

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stressed that if this attack on the eve of the EP elections is confirmed to be politically motivated, it would be an attack on democracy.

Faeser said anti-democracy violence has taken on a new dimension, adding that the rule of law will respond harshly to this.

According to Dresden police, four unidentified people attacked a 41-year-old man who was putting up posters for the SPD on Schandauer Street. The attacked person was injured and hospitalized.

Before this incident, four people attacked another person who was putting up a poster for the Green Party on the same street.

The Interior Ministry of the State of Saxony announced that an investigation into the incident has been launched.

* Writing by Zeynep Cetin in Istanbul