Cologne. The candidate won the mayoral election without leaving a coma
It appears that Israel's epidemic of knife attacks is spreading to Europe. Last Saturday in Cologne, the leader of the election race for the local elections for the head of the municipality was stabbed in the neck with a knife.
Henriette Recker, a 58-year-old non-partisan candidate supported in the elections by the CDU and a number of other parties, was at an election stand located at a farmers' fair in one of the central squares of Cologne when she was attacked by 44-year-old Frank S.
In addition to Recker, two representatives of her election headquarters (one from the CDU, the other from the Free Democratic Party of Germany) and two ordinary passers-by who tried to stop the criminal were injured. At the Cologne University Clinic, Reker underwent emergency surgery, her condition was stabilized, and doctors put her into an artificial coma.
Recker election poster. The slogan in the center: “From a street festival to an opera premiere: we value our culture.” Inscription in the lower corner: “the first female burgomaster for Cologne”
According to the German publication Der Spiegel, the crime had xenophobic motives. Recker served as deputy mayor for social affairs and was involved in providing housing for refugees who had poured into Germany in recent months. In particular, she was in charge of their placement in the Cologne Cathedral. During the election campaign, she repeatedly called for the integration of refugees. However, her election poster included a call for the preservation of German culture.
The investigation, which is being conducted by the Prosecutor General's Office, has not yet revealed the identity of the attacker. A search of his home reportedly revealed that he had destroyed two hard drives on his computer and other storage media that could shed light on his motives and connections. It is also known that in the 90s he was a member of the right-wing Free German Workers' Party, banned in Germany.
Crime scene
The victim of the attack was elected mayor (i.e. mayor) in the first round with a result of 52,7%, with a turnout of 40,3%. She became the first woman to head the municipality of the fourth largest city in Germany and the first non-partisan politician to hold this position in recent history.
It is worth noting that compared to previous similar elections, turnout fell by 9%, and if the emotional reaction of Cologne residents to Saturday's attack allowed Reker to win in the first round, then the overall turnout still remained very low, the lowest in the history of the city.
Der Spiegel columnist Jörg Diehl responded to this with a column entitled “Showing up for murder. Shame on you, Cologne!”, in which it is surprising why not at all depressed, but prosperous and advanced Cologne ignored the calls of politicians, the media, celebrities, was too lazy on Sunday to get off its ass and come to the polls, not to mention the fact that “everyone “decent people” should have come out as one to mass protests against the “cowardly” attack by the right-wing extremist.
They should have, but they didn’t.
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