Further attacks on politicians in Germany have rattled the country and prompted renewed outrage from leaders, after Berlin's former mayor was assaulted in a library on Tuesday afternoon.
Franziska Giffey, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin who currently serves as the city's economy minister, was treated in hospital for slight injuries after being hit over the head with a heavy bag.
In a separate attack on Tuesday night, a Green Party council candidate was assaulted and spat on by two assailants while putting up campaign posters.
Those assaults are the latest in a string of attacks aimed at politicians across the country in recent days that have prompted outrage and fears about damage to the country's democratic norms.
Elections to the European Parliament take place on June 6-9, and many candidates are busy campaiging and putting up posters across the European Union. There are also regional parliament elections coming up in September in three states in the east of Germany.
"After the initial shock, I can say I'm fine," Giffey said on Wednesday.
But in an Instagram post, Giffey said that the string of attacks on politicians cannot be justified.
"We live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion," Giffey wrote on Wednesday. "And yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a German politician from the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), condemned the attacks and demanded decisive action in a speech to her party in Berlin on Wednesday.
"When we talk about threats to our democracy, it's not just about positions and content. It's also about people," the German politician said. "If these people are no longer safe, then our democracy is no longer safe either."
She said that perpetrators must "feel the full force of the law."
"We must protect all those who stand up for our democratic society and our country from attacks - regardless of which party they belong to, whether privately, during election campaigns or in the exercise of their duties, day or night," von der Leyen said.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner also condemned the physical attack on Giffey "in the strongest possible terms" and expressed concern about the recent rash of political street violence in Germany.
"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy," Wegner, a member of the CDU, said in a statement on Wednesday morning. "We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy."
Wegner announced that the city's governing executive would discuss responses to the Tuesday afternoon assault on Giffey, including potentially tougher penalties for attacks on politicians.
The Green Party politician attacked in Dresden, Yvonne Mosler, was campaigning in the city with a fellow Green candidate, Cornelius Sternkopf, when she was shoved, insulted and threatened by a 34-year-old man, who also tore down two campaign posters.
A second suspect, a 24-year-old woman, joined in on the attack and spat at the politician, according to police in Dresden. Both suspects had been standing in a group that allegedly also chanted an outlawed Nazi slogan.
Mosler was accompanied by journalists from German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the time. Police officers confronted both suspects in the immediate vicinity of the attack on Tuesday evening.
On Friday, also in Dresden, a Social Democratic member of the European Parliament named Matthias Ecke was brutally beaten by four assailants while putting up campaign posters.
Four suspects in the attack on Ecke - aged 17 and 18 - have since been arrested.
Berlin police announced on Wednesday that they had identified a 74-year-old suspect in Giffey's assault. Police said the man is known to police and there is reason to suspect political motive, but there are also "indications of mental illness."
Giffey was injured after the man suddenly attacked her "from behind with a bag filled with hard contents and hit her on the head and neck," according to Berlin police and local prosecutors.
The attack occurred at a library in the Rudow district of Berlin. Giffey "briefly went to hospital for outpatient treatment for head and neck pain," police said.
Giffey returned to her work on Wednesday.
The head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, expressed his concern about the growing violence against politicians and campaign workers on Wednesday.
The agency has already counted 22 physical attacks on politicians so far this year, compared to 27 such attacks in all of 2023. The number of insults has also risen significantly.
Münch said that police cannot possibly protect all politicians and campaign workers, and said it's an issue that would have to be addressed more broadly.
"We must not be under the illusion that this all ends with police protection," Münch said.