AfD law makers strongly condemn assault on top member

“I was at the traditional New Year’s reception of the Weser-Kurier in the Kunsthalle Bremen. The Bremen Senate, citizenship deputies, civil servants and also members of the Bundestag were guests there. I left the reception shortly before 6pm. I parked my car in the theater garage. Unfortunately, I cut across an area behind the theater where there were few passers-by,” said Magnitz, describing the situation before the attack, to Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit.

“Then I got a blow to the skull and I remembered nothing more. When I came to, I felt I was sitting on the floor with my back against a wall and I heard a voice.” The voice belonged to one of the two workers who had seen the three hoodlums following Magnitz. They alerted rescue teams when they saw the assault.

Party and parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Alexander Gauland, strongly condemned the “attempted murder”. For him, the act is the result of ongoing exclusion and incitement against his party. During a press conference on Tuesday, he specifically blamed the Greens.

Gaulands co-chairwoman Alice Weidel also expressed her “absolute shock with this disgusting act”. She accused the media of inciting the assault in a statement on Facebook.

The Co-party leader of the AfD, Jörg Meuthen, said that this was not the first assault on a party member. Meuthen issued two demands, saying AfD politicians should receive police protection if they feel threatened. In addition, the secret service should be reporting on parties that did not clearly distance themselves from Antifa. In particular, the MEP singled out the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeiner wished Magnitz a good and speedy recovery in a letter. “I condemn this attack very clearly,” the news agency dpa quoted from the letter of the head of state.

Other top politicians condemned the attack. Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) demanded on social media, that perpetrators be punished consistently.

Meanwhile, the Bremen Evangelical Church has accused the AfD of scaremongering. It was “a great asset of our democracy that we have established civilized forms of debate and peaceful conflict management in Germany after the Nazi era,” said the church’s leading theologian, Renke Brahms, told the Evangelical news agency idea .

“Therefore, I also condemn how the AfD instrumentalises the attack and the serious injuries of its own MPs in their statements and want to play the role of the victim with scare tactics.”