Berlin:

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country’s leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Passengers wait at a Lufthansa check-in counter at Munich Airport, Germany on March 7. 2024. The Verdi trade union is paralysing important parts of German air traffic on Thursday and Friday with renewed warning strikes by several professional groups.
| Photo Credit: AP

Millions of travellers across Germany were affected by strikes again on March 7 after two unions called for two-day walkouts over wages and work conditions.

Around 80% of all long-distance trains as well as regional and commuter trains in the country were cancelled as train drivers went on strike. Air travel was affected as well, as ground staff for German airline Lufthansa stopped working early in the morning.

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The strikes led to traffic jams in cities and on highways, a shortage of share and rental cars, and plane passengers trying to desperately rebook flights to reach their destinations. Students arrived late for school and employees struggled to arrive on time for work as millions who usually rely on commuter trains found themselves stranded or stuck in traffic.

Lufthansa said earlier in the week that about 1,000 flights per day would have to be canceled and that around 200,000 air passengers would be affected.

Negotiations continue for Lufthansa ground staff and German rail operator Deutsche Bahn’s train drivers. The train drivers’ union GDL and Verdi called for the strikes on Thursday and Friday.

The strike on long-distance and regional passenger train services began at 2 a.m. (0100 GMT) Thursday. According to GDL, it is to last until 1 p.m. Friday. For freight transport, the strike started Wednesday at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) and is to last until 5 a.m. Friday.

In addition to pay raises, GDL has been calling for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 per week without a pay cut, which Deutsche Bahn has refused.

The Ver.di union seeks a 12.5% pay raise, or at least €500 ($542) more per month, in negotiations for nearly 25,000 Lufthansa ground workers including check-in, aircraft handling, maintenance and freight staff.

Coinciding contract negotiations have resulted in several walkouts in the rail, air and local transport sectors in Germany in recent months, testing passengers’ patience over and over again.

Train driver union GDL announced earlier this week that more strikes were coming in the near future, but said it would no longer announce them 48 hours in advance, giving travellers less time to look for alternatives.