German politicians are no longer safe: they are facing a growing number of attacks — and not just verbal ones. During the 2025 federal election campaign, police in the state of Hesse recorded hundreds of offences committed against political parties. Most of these were directed at the AfD and the CDU. However, only one party had to request police protection for its campaign stands.

During Germany’s federal election campaign, one of the key tasks of the Hessian police was to protect the AfD’s campaign stands. At the request of the AfD’s parliamentary group, the state government reported that a total of 66 information stands had been secured by the police.

The security forces registered 601 politically motivated offences linked to the election campaign.

Of these, 24 were attributed to the far-left extremist scene, 20 to far-right extremism, and 557 to offences of “other” political motivation.

• The majority of the crimes, 172 cases, were directed against the AfD;
• followed by the CDU (147 cases),
• and the Greens (117 cases).
• The SPD was targeted in 78 cases,
• the FDP in 51,
• and the Left Party in 47 inctances.

Overall, fewer offences were committed against other parties, and since some incidents affected multiple parties, the total number of offences exceeds 601, according to the Junge Freiheit outlet.

These figures also include cases of bodily harm and grievous bodily harm. Four of these assaults were directed against AfD politicians and two against members of the CDU. Most of the 601 offences — a total of 564 — involved property damage. The CDU was hit hardest, with 133 such cases, followed by the AfD (117 cases) and the Greens (107).

The AfD expressed its dismay at the data.

“Attacks on election campaign events are attacks on democracy itself. In this light, it is shocking to see the depths revealed by the state government’s response to our inquiry,” said Sandra Weegels, the parliamentary group’s spokesperson for internal affairs.

“Only the AfD’s campaign teams require police protection. This goes a long way to demonstrate the left’s understanding of democracy,”

– Ms. Weegels, a former police officer, remarked. She added that the competition for votes — in which citizens can learn about the participating parties, their personnel and programmes — “is the very core of any democracy”. The AfD “strongly condemns all forms of violence in political debate, regardless of who initiates it or against whom it is directed,” Ms. Weegels emphasised.

The state government, a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), also condemned political violence in its response: “Acts of violence are crimes and not instruments of political debate; this applies without reservation,” it stated.

AfD Politicians Face a Wave of Attacks Across Germany

The right-wing party and its politicians have been subjected to numerous attacks in recent years. Last year, the house of Markus Fuchs, the head of the AfD in Hesse, was vandalised, and several AfD offices have also been targeted.

Wer keine Argumente mehr hat, greift zu Vandalismus…

In der Nacht von Freitag auf Samstag haben AfD-Gegner das Wohnhaus von Markus Fuchs mit Farbe beschmiert sowie mit den Sätzen „Markus Fuchs ist bei der AfD“ und „Frauen wehrt euch gegen Faschisten“. Die AfD Hessen bietet… pic.twitter.com/qXvugY10Nw

— Anna Nguyen, MdL (@nguyen_afd) November 16, 2024

However, the violence has not stopped at vandalism. It is worth recalling that last summer an AfD politician was stabbed in Mannheim. According to the AfD’s district association, the incident took place near the marketplace. The AfD candidate had reportedly caught someone in the act of defacing posters.

When he confronted the individual, he was attacked and stabbed. The AfD politician remains in hospital but suffered only cuts.

Á Mannheim (encore), un candidat de l’AfD surprend un antifa vandalisant ses affiches : ce dernier sort une arme blanche et le frappe á plusieurs reprises. pic.twitter.com/t4bS4pVJ5v

— Laurent Obertone (@LaurentObertone) June 5, 2024

Back in 2019, Frank Magnitz, the then nearly seventy-year-old Bundestag member from Bremen, was beaten within an inch of his life by Antifa activists..

And only a week ago, two AfD politicians were attacked as they were returning home from a party event in Gottingen.

Following the assault on the members of the AfD in Gottingen, police launched an investigation for grievous bodily harm against two women and three men. According to a police spokesperson, the two politicians — aged 28 and 35 — sustained minor injuries.

According to press reports, their attackers were also linked to Antifa.