A German politician was attacked and seriously injured by four assailants while putting up campaign posters in the eastern German city of Dresden late on Friday evening, according to police.
Matthias Ecke, 41, is a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and a current lawmaker in the European Parliament.
Ecke was taken to hospital for treatment following the attack and will require surgery. Ecke is the SPD's top candidate for the upcoming European Parliament elections in the eastern German state of Saxony.
Police said they have not identified the attackers.
Minutes earlier, according to the police, a group of four unidentified assailants had attacked a 28-year-old Green Party campaign worker while he was putting up posters.
The perpetrators punched and kicked him, and the 28-year-old was also injured.
Due to similar descriptions of the attackers and the proximity of the attacks in both time and location, investigators believe that the same group carried out both assaults.
The SPD party organization in Saxony said that other campaign teams placing posters had faced insults and attempts at intimidation and that posters had been destroyed.
The attack is an "unmistakable alarm signal to all people in this country," the co-chairs of the SPD in Saxony, Henning Homann and Kathrin Michel, said in a statement.
"The series of attacks by thugs on poster teams of democratic parties is an attack on the foundations of our democracy. The violent action and intimidation of democrats is the tool of fascists."
The SPD leaders blamed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and other right-wing extremist groups for sowing hatred against democratic politicians, and warned that right-wing supporters "are now completely uninhibited" and see democratic politicians as "fair game."
German democracy "must not tolerate this," the SPD leaders said. "And it is also clear that we will not be silenced!"