Security services in Saxony-Anhalt are investigating a suspected arson attack that saw nearly all of a local Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) politician’s fleet of moving trucks torched, resulting in several hundred thousand euros in damage.
Local AfD politician Sven Elbert, the owner of the moving company Umzüge Ebert. who sits on the Schkopau municipal council and the Saale district council, was awakened on Monday night to find out that five of the six trucks in his Hohenweiden fleet had been destroyed, with another company car severely damaged, after catching fire, Junge Freiheit reports.
Per reports from German media, the flames and kilometer-high plumes of smoke that resulted from the ignited vehicles could be seen as far as 10 kilometers away in the city of Halle.
One employee of the company described the effects of the fire to reporters from the state broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk as “devastating,” saying that “almost the entire company fleet had been destroyed.” Operations, he said, would continue with the support of rental vehicles.
Elbert’s moving company, which has eight branches throughout central Germany, has been the target of attacks in the past where assailants vandalized company property with buckets of paint. The attacks, suspected to have been committed by Antifa or groups affiliated with the extreme left, are believed to have targeted Elbert’s company due to his affiliation with the AfD.
The Halle police station’s Central Criminal Investigation Department is investigating the fire’s origins. Its spokesman in an official statement said the investigation is “going in all directions,” meaning a political motive has not been ruled out at this stage.
Over the years, the AfD and its political figures, including its two leaders, have been on the receiving end of a litany of death threats, physical assaults, and attacks on their and their family member’s property.
In 2019, 2020, and 2021 the anti-globalist party and its members fell victim to politically-motivated violence more frequently than any other party represented in the German Bundestag, according to figures from the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
