Following years of demonization by the mainstream press, establishment politicians, and high-ranking security officials, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla is in an intensive care unit after he was attacked, reportedly with a syringe, during an election campaign event in Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
The attack, which according to the conservative Berlin-based newspaper Junge Freiheit saw Chrupalla go into anaphylactic shock after being stuck with a syringe, comes days after it was revealed that Alice Weidel, the AfD’s other co-leader, along with her family, had been rushed away to a secure location after security services received credible intelligence of an imminent attack on the conservative politician.
Green Party MP Renate Künast, in a tweet on Wednesday, October 5th, questioned whether Weidel had staged the “security problem to suit the election” in Bavaria this coming weekend.
While many of the specifics about the incident remain unclear, video footage circulating on social media shows Chrupalla, who has led the party for four years now, being taken to the hospital in an ambulance after he apparently collapsed.
While police have confirmed that an “incident” did occur, they refrained from stating definitively that Chrupalla’s condition was the result of an attack.
In an official statement, the Upper Bavaria North Police Headquarters wrote: “At around 4:30 p.m., before his speech began, Bundestag member Tino Chrupalla had to receive medical care backstage. The politician was then taken to hospital, although no obvious injuries were apparent at the time.
“In order to clarify the details of this medical incident, further investigations were carried out by the Ingolstadt Criminal Investigation Department,” the statement continued, urging individuals in the area who might have taken photos or videos of the incident to contact authorities.
Speaking to Junge Freiheit about the incident, an AfD party spokesman said: “At an AfD election campaign event in Ingolstadt today there was a physical incident against our party’s federal spokesman, Tino Chrupalla. He was therefore taken to a hospital, where his health condition is currently being clarified.”
Eyewitnesses have told Junge Freiheit that “a syringe could have been used” against the Chrupalla. Two of the campaign event’s speakers, Katrin Ebner-Steiner, the AfD’s primary candidate for Sunday’s state election in Bavaria, and Austrian journalist Gerald Grosz, told the German newspaper that a syringe had been found at the scene of the incident. At this point, however, police have not corroborated these claims.
According to Grosz, Chrupulla, upon feeling sick, had pointed out “two young men” in the crowd who were subsequently questioned—and apparently arrested—by the local police officers.
“I am downright horrified at the methods and violence being used against the AfD and its representatives. Tino Chrupalla was attacked and injured at a joint event today. He was taken to hospital. Now the seeds of Steinmeier, Merkel, and Söder are sprouting! A shame for Germany!” Grosz wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Over the past years, especially as the AfD has risen in the national polls, attacks and acts of intimidation against AfD members by leftist extremists and others have become all too common. Just last month, the chairman of the AfD in the Bavarian district of Augsburg was severely beaten in what he called a politically motivated attack by migrants.
Although the mainstream liberal press has largely ignored the trend, politicians from the national-conservative AfD have been the main victims of political violence for years now.
As The European Conservative previously reported in 2022, members and politicians from the AfD were the most frequent victims of political violence in 2018, 2019, and 2021.
