Harsher laws insufficient to curb political violence: German Justice Minister

Berlin: Harsher penalties will not be enough to curb the increasing aggression against politicians, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann has said.

"The attempt to solve the social problem of a general brutalisation of political debate with criminal law alone will fail," the politician from the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) told dpa. Nevertheless, he was prepared to look at proposals from the federal states on criminal law.

The federal and state interior ministers had met for a video conference on Tuesday following the brutal attack on the Social Democratic Party's (SPD) leading candidate for the European elections in Saxony, Matthias Ecke.

In a joint resolution, the conference of interior ministers asked the justice ministers to examine as soon as possible whether "the specific injustice that can be seen in the fact that such attacks jeopardise democracy" is already sufficiently reflected in criminal law.

It should also be examined whether "the deliberate dissemination of disinformation with the aim of influencing elections or escalating violence constitutes a criminal offence."

Attacks on politicians have been on the rise. On May 3, Ecke was putting up posters in Dresden when he was badly beaten, because of which he had to be hospitalised.

On Tuesday, a man hit Berlin's top economic official, Franziska Giffey of the SPD, on the back of the head in a public library.

The leading Green Party candidate for the city council, Yvonne Mosler, was jostled and threatened while putting up election posters in Dresden.

According to the police, two members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the state parliament were verbally and physically attacked by suspected opponents of the party in Stuttgart on Wednesday.