Co-leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party in intensive care unit

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - The co-leader of Germany's far-right AfD party, Tino Chrupalla, is receiving intensive care treatment at a hospital in the city of Ingolstadt, his office said in on Thursday.

According to a party spokesman, Chrupalla "continues to be in intensive care," but remains responsive. The spokesman also spoke of traces of a "puncture wound" and claimed that the party’s co-leader is a victim of a “physical assault.”

What exactly led to Chrupalla's hospitalization is still unclear. The AfD co-leader had attended an election campaign event in Ingolstadt on Wednesday.

Before the start of a planned speech, he had to receive medical treatment backstage and was subsequently admitted to the hospital.

The Ingolstadt police had initially stated in a press release that at that time "an obvious injury" had not been recognizable.

"In order to clarify the more detailed circumstances of this medical incident, further investigations have been taken over by the Ingolstadt Criminal Investigation Department," police said.

A spokesman for the police headquarters of Upper Bavaria North in Ingolstadt told local media on Thursday that there is no new state of knowledge.

The police still have no indications of a physical attack from the audience on the AfD leader, the spokesman said.

He added that as far as it is known so far, the events had taken place backstage. Visitors who took photos or videos at the campaign event have been asked by police to provide them to the police.

It is the second incident of this kind within a few days in connection with the AfD. On Tuesday, German Unity Day, the party's co-chair Alice Weidel originally had a campaign appearance for the state elections in Bavaria.

However, instead of Weidel, a representative of the AfD came on stage on Tuesday and explained that there had been a security-related incident at Alice Weidel's home last weekend.

According to a report in the Swiss daily Blick, Weidel and her family had been evacuated from their private apartment in Switzerland last weekend by the Schwyz cantonal police and taken to a safe location because there had been indications that an attack on her and her family was being planned.

Weidel lives with her family in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. The AfD representative on stage had gone on to say that Weidel could not leave this safe place and would have to go into hiding for the time being.

Then, according to a report in the German news magazine Spiegel, a video message from Weidel to her "dear friends in Bavaria" was played, in which she expressed regret that she could not be there in person.

According to the news magazine, this gave the impression that Weidel had sent her message from a so-called police safehouse, that is, a place safeguarded by security authorities.

In fact, however, she was on vacation on the Balearic island of Mallorca in Spain at the time, a spokesman for the party confirmed to the news magazine.