Three further suspects have been identified in relation to an attack in Germany on a European parliament lawmaker (MEP), authorities said on Monday, after a teenager turned himself in over the assault.
Matthias Ecke, 41, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up European election posters in the eastern city of Dresden on Friday night, according to police.
He needed an operation for injuries sustained in the attack, which was denounced by Scholz as a threat to democracy.
On Sunday, a 17-year-old turned himself in to police in Dresden and told them he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician,” according to officers.
Following further investigations, three other suspects were identified on Sunday, their homes were searched and evidence seized, according to a joint statement from the police and prosecutors in Dresden.
The suspects are German men aged 17 and 18, the statement said.
“The investigation is ongoing and will take some time,” it added.
The teen who turned himself in on Sunday is considered the main suspect in the attack, according to German daily Bild.
The motive remains unclear and the suspects have not been taken into custody, although this may change once more details of the case have been established, the paper said.
Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was 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.
Police suspect the same four people of carrying out the attack.
In the past week, two Greens lawmakers 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.
That was more than the 1,806 recorded the previous year but fewer than the 2,840 registered in 2021, when legislative elections took place.
On Sunday, thousands of people attended demonstrations in solidarity with Ecke in Dresden and Berlin.