Parties concerned about security during election campaign

With just over a week to go before the state elections in Saxony, the election campaign is entering its decisive phase - and sometimes poses a risk for campaign workers. Following an increase in attacks on candidates and campaign workers in previous elections, the parties have increased their security precautions for the state election campaign, according to an inquiry by Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) to the SPD, CDU, Greens, Left Party, AfD, BSW and FDP.

In recent weeks and months, there have been several attacks on campaign workers from various parties in Saxony. At the beginning of August, for example, a Left Party team was threatened with a machete. Prior to the European and local elections, there had also been several attacks on campaign teams in the state.

According to the Saxon Ministry of the Interior, there have already been almost 900 politically motivated crimes in connection with the local, European and state elections this year. An attack on MEP Matthias Ecke (SPD) in Dresden at the beginning of May caused great horror. He was knocked down at night by several young men and injured so badly that he had to be treated in hospital.

Police presence at events

In view of this development, the parties increased their security precautions to better protect campaigners and election workers. According to the parties, they are never out at night and only ever in groups. In addition, events are registered with the police in advance. Back in May, the Saxon police declared their intention to work closely with the parties to ensure the safety of campaigners and election workers in the state.

Campaign workers were also trained in security aspects before the start of the election campaign, according to the Greens, for example. "Our primarily volunteer helpers are regularly made aware of possible situations and how they can best react to them," said the deputy state chairman of the FDP, Thomas Kunz. The AfD stated that it did not wish to provide any information on specific security measures for security reasons.

Violence reaches "new high"

According to the SPD, the atmosphere during the election campaign has become rougher. "Verbal attacks, poster destruction and violence have increased", a spokesperson said. The CDU also sees a worrying development. "As the Saxon Union, we are concerned that there are repeated attacks on campaigners," explained a CDU spokesperson.

Although the willingness to use violence against election workers is a known problem, it had "noticeably reached a new peak in the last European and local election campaign", said William Rambow from the Left Party. Although there have been fewer reports of attacks in the state election campaign so far, "however, campaigners have already been threatened with a knife in this election campaign too, for example."

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has said that it has seen little violence so far. Only damaged posters and large billboards have been reported so far, explained BSW spokesperson Eric Recke.