On a weekend that was marked in Portugal by attacks on several immigrants in Porto, violence also struck eastern Germany, where, in Dresden, a Social Democratic Party (SPD) MEP was attacked during a campaign event.

It all happened on Friday night, when Matthias Ecke was putting up posters as part of his campaign for the European elections, which will take place in a month. The 41-year-old was attacked by four unknown individuals and was seriously injured, and is now "receiving medical treatment in hospital", after surgery.

The attack led the SPD in the state of Saxony to reinforce security measures, preventing its members from carrying out campaign activities alone from now on. They must always be in groups of four or five in order to be able to react to potential attacks. In addition, the police will be informed in advance about the posting of posters.

One of the attackers turned himself in on Sunday. He is a minor

On Sunday morning, the German police reported that a 17-year-old turned himself in to the authorities, saying that he was one of the perpetrators of the violent attack.

"He admitted to the act, but said nothing else," explained a police spokesman, detailing that he said he was the "perpetrator of the crime that had brought down the SPD politician".

Attack condemned throughout Europe (including in Portugal)

Several German politicians, including the Chancellor, condemned the violent attack.

"Democracy is threatened by this type of act", said Olaf Scholz, in a message in which he wished Matthias Ecke, an MEP from his party, which is in power, that he "face what has entered his life as a horror".

Achselzuckendes Hinnehmen ist niemals eine Option. Denn Angriffe, wie der auf den Europaabgeordneten Matthias Ecke und auf andere Kandidatinnen und Kandidaten, bedrohen unsere Demokratie.
Wir müssen gemeinsam dagegen stehen.
Ich wünsche Matthias Ecke schnelle Genesung.

— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) May 4, 2024

The German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, also condemned the attack, in a statement quoted by the press. "If a politically motivated attack is confirmed a few weeks before the European elections, this serious act of violence also constitutes a serious attack on democracy," the statement reads, which also considers this to be "a new dimension of anti-democratic violence". Faeser also points the finger at "extremists and populists, who are fuelling a growing climate of violence with totally disproportionate verbal attacks".

The leaders of the SPD in Saxony, Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel, also reacted: "The seeds sown by the AfD and other right-wing extremists are germinating. Their supporters are now completely uninhibited and clearly see us democrats as a game," they write.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, took to social media to talk about the matter. "I am horrified by the vicious attack on MEP Matthias Ecke in Dresden. My full support and solidarity. Those responsible must be brought to justice", she wrote on the X social network (formerly Twitter).

Entsetzt über den bösartigen Angriff auf den Europaabgeordneten @MattEcke in Dresden. Meine volle Unterstützung und Solidarität. Die Verantwortlichen müssen vor Gericht gestellt werden.

Matthias, @Europarl_DE steht an deiner Seite.

— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) May 4, 2024

In Portugal, the parliamentary leader of the Socialist Party, Alexandra Leitão, condemned the attack on the MEP. In a post on the X social network, she pointed out that both the "brutal beating" of Matthias Ecke and the attack in Invicta "should alert us to the danger of normalising the radical, xenophobic, racist, misogynistic and homophobic far right, whose hate speech incites violence".

O ataque absolutamente condenável a imigrantes no Porto, tal como o brutal espancamento do candidato do SPD na Alemanha devem alertar-nos para o perigo da normalização da extrema-direita radical, xenófoba, racista, misógina e homofóbica, cujo discurso de ódio incita à violência.

— Alexandra Leitão (@Alexandrarfl) May 5, 2024

This is not the first attack

According to the police, a group of four people had attacked, minutes before, a 28-year-old member of the Greens, while he was posting posters on the same street. The young man was injured after being kicked. Based on the corresponding descriptions and the temporal and local proximity, the investigators believe that the perpetrators are the same in both cases.

Also on Thursday night, two deputies elected by the Greens, the party that governs with the SPD, were attacked in Essen, western Germany, one of them being hit in the face, according to the police.

On the last Saturday of April, several dozen protesters attacked the Vice-President of the Bundestag, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, elected by the Green Party, after a festive event in eastern Germany. Her car was blocked and police reinforcements had to be called in to get her out of the area.

These attacks are the result of "the rhetoric, the atmosphere created, of turning people against each other and setting them against each other," lamented Olaf Scholz.

"We must never resign ourselves to these acts of violence, we must oppose them together," insisted the Chancellor.

According to Armin Schuster, Minister of the Interior of Saxony, wher>