Officials and mandate holders in Berlin should now be able to be protected more effectively. The Berlin Senator for the Interior, Andreas Geisel (SPD), has therefore written to the state politicians of the capital to indicate that the state security service has a number specially set up for them.
In a corresponding letter from the Tagesspiegel last week, Geisel wrote that “hostilities against politicians have increased nationwide” and “attacks on private addresses and party facilities have increased in recent years”.
For a few days now, a “24/7 contact person” from the State Security has been available by phone at the State Criminal Police Office. “Safety and behavioral instructions” could be requested under the number.
Geisel continues: “Even if the limit of criminal liability has not yet been exceeded, you can refer here to facts to the detriment of your person, which in your opinion should be assessed by the police.”
Senator Geisel also points out in the letter that emergency calls 110 should be dialed as usual in urgent cases.
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As reported, threatening e-mails had apparently only been received by right-wing extremists in the past few weeks. Some of the letters are said to have used data from a police computer in Hesse.
Hesse’s Interior Minister spoke of 27 threatened people and institutions in eight federal states. In Berlin, the leader of the Left Party, Anne Helm, was affected. Again and again in the capital, constituency offices are attacked by MPs from all political groups, and politicians’ cars are less often lit.
Number of politically motivated crimes against politicians is increasing
Nationwide, the number of politically motivated crimes against officials and mandate holders rose significantly in 2019. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) registered 1451 such offenses in the past year; in 2018, 1256 cases were counted. In the publicly available statistics, it remained unclear what the individual offenses were.
Security circles say that most cases are likely to be property damage and threats at the local level. In addition to politicians, the BKA also includes judges and representatives of the authorities as officers and mandates. Attacks on police officers are recorded separately.
