A far-right German politician was punched in the face while at a supermarket, adding to a rash of violent attacks on lawmakers of all parties.
Mario Kumpf, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), was assaulted at the store in the eastern town of Ebersbach-Neugersdorf on Wednesday afternoon.
The assailant went on shopping after punching Kumpf, according to a police statement. Kumpf himself called the police after the attack.
Officers arrested the 53-year-old alleged perpetrator and filed charges of assault.
Kumpf has been a member of the Saxony state parliament since 2019.
A series of attacks on politicians and political campaign workers have left Germany wondering about the state of its democracy. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has denounced the crimes as "outrageous and cowardly."
Franziska Giffey, a prominent Berlin state minister and former mayor, who belongs to Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SDP), was attacked while visiting a library in the German capital earlier this month.
Bundestag member Matthias Ecke, also from the SPD, was beaten and hospitalized in Dresden at the start of May. Green Party politician Yvonne Mosler was also insulted, threatened and spat at while putting up posters in Dresden a few days later.
