An election poster of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on 3 June 2024, ahead of the June 9 European Parliament elections. (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
- A right-wing German politician was stabbed on Tuesday night, according to local reports.
- That is the second attack related to right-wing politics in the city of Mannheim in a week.
- On Wednesday, right-wing UK politician Nigel Farage had a drink thrown at him.
A local politician from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was injured in a knife attack in Mannheim late on Tuesday, the German news agency DPA reported on Wednesday.
The incident comes just days after another stabbing attack at an anti-Islam demonstration in which a policeman was killed.
The knifeman was detained shortly after the incident at around 20:45 on Tuesday, the German agency said.
The local AfD branch said that the injured politician is in hospital and that the perpetrator might be a radical leftist activist, according to DPA.
On Sunday, a police officer identified as Rouven L died after he was stabbed in the head in a square in Mannheim. An anti-Islam group, the Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa, was preparing for a rally there at the time.
Police identified the attacker as a young man from Afghanistan, who arrived in Germany as a teenager in 2014.
The far-right AfD is campaigning in European elections on an anti-immigration platform, and it has close links to anti-Islam organisations.
In the UK, Farage doused
On Wednesday, right-wing UK political figure Nigel Farage had the contents of a drink container thrown into his face, during his first full day of campaigning for upcoming UK elections.
READ | UK right-winger Nigel Farage takes a drink to the face at campaign launch
A young woman was arrested.
Farage previously led the UK Independence Party, and is considered one of the most influential figures in the British right. He famously referred to lifeboats that rescue immigrants who fail in trying to cross the English Channel in small boats as a “taxi service”, and his 2024 platform features anti-immigrant rhetoric.
– Additional reporting by News24
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