The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has described the proposal to punish attacks on politicians more severely as "nonsense."
"A politician is no better than a normal worker or business owner," Tino Chrupalla said during an appearance on Berlin public radio on Friday.
At the same time, the AfD co-chairman emphasized that violence should never be a means of political debate: "It is simply condemnable when people are attacked - regardless of their views or party affiliation."
The German government is weighing new penalties for attacks on politicians and campaign workers following a string of assaults in recent days that have prompted national outrage.
Some observers have blamed the far-right AfD for inflamed tensions in German politics, and have argued that the party's rhetoric bears some responsibility for violence.
Politicians from other parties have also sometimes used harsh vocabulary, said the AfD chairman: "Verbal disarmament would be good for us all."