A party office belonging to the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the city of Döbeln was bombed with the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) stating they believe the attack to be politically motivated.
The attack occurred on Thursday night according to a police spokesman who said that the nature of the explosion was initially unclear but that no one had been hurt Die Welt reports.
Gestern Abend verübten bisher unbekannte Täter einen Anschlag auf das AfD-Bürgerbüro in Döbeln. Glücklicherweise wurde niemand verwundet oder gar getötet. Doch wir lassen uns nicht einschüchtern und werden niemals aufgeben. #AfD pic.twitter.com/g1s3oMIgnS
— Jens Maier, MdB (@JensMaierAfD) January 4, 2019
Three men, all Germans aged 29, 32 and 50-years-old, were arrested in connection to the attack in Dresden the LKA said on Friday. A police spokesman confirmed that although they believed the bombing had been politically motivated they were still unsure of connections any of the suspects may have to the far-left extremist scene in Saxony.
The LKA has also not revealed what kind of explosives were used in the attack nor the identity of the three men arrested. The Chemnitz prosecutor has said that despite the men being suspects in the attack, there is not enough evidence currently to keep them in jail and they could be released in the coming days.
The AfD in the Saxony state parliament condemned the bombing as an example of left-wing extremism saying that left-wing violence “is getting worse and worse in Saxony.” The party added that since they had been elected to the Saxony parliament, the party had been targetted in a total of 80 attacks on offices and members’ private homes.
German Antifa Far-Left Extremists Release ‘Riot Tourist’ Instructional Terror Handbook https://t.co/04C76INQ0a
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 22, 2018
An AfD spokesman told Breitbart London that the party keeps track of attacks against members saying that in 2017 the party had been subject to 669 criminal attacks of various kinds.
The bombing was also condemned by Saxony Deputy Prime Minister Martin Dulig, a member of the Social Democrats, who said, “violence does not belong to the means of democracy. The AfD must be fought politically and not with explosives.” He added that the attack harmed democracy and helped the populist party.
The bombing comes only months after the far-left extremist Antifa group released a terror-handbook that encouraged other extremists to attack AfD party offices and linked to another even more extreme document that provided instruction on how to make remotely detonated firebombs.
Antifa members in Germany were previously caught by undercover police in Thuringia stockpiling chemicals and high explosives in what was described as a mobile bomb factory last March.
The attack also follows another bombing of a populist party office in Italy last year in which a far-left anarchist extremist group took credit for planting a bomb at the offices of Matteo Salvini’s La Lega party in Treviso in August.
Police Uncover Antifa-linked Hoard of Chemicals, High-Explosives, Mobile Bomb Factory in Germany https://t.co/phbUi9vSHO
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 17, 2018
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
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