Study on threats, insults, attacks: Numerous local politicians complain about hostilities

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Broken pane of glass (symbolic image): »Experiences of threats are part of everyday life in municipal politics«

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Barbara Fischer/Moment RF/Getty Images

Insults and threats are apparently part of everyday life for many German local politicians: According to the results, more than half of those interviewed for a study in German cities have already been victims of them.

In a study by the University of Duisburg-Essen, 59.9 percent of the officials surveyed reported threats, insults and physical attacks.

"Experiences with threats are part of everyday life in local politics," said political scientist Andreas Blätte, who led the study.

More than 2,000 mayors, city councilors and councilors from 80 major German cities were interviewed for the study, which was carried out in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is close to the Greens.

More than 90 percent of the study participants want to continue doing politics despite such attacks.

However, it is an "alarming finding" that 4.7 percent are considering withdrawing from local politics out of self-protection or concerns for their families, said Blätte.

Numbers speak »clear language«

A total of 5,763 people in local politics were contacted, and 2,166 completed the questionnaire for the request.

Due to the form of the inquiry, the survey cannot be considered representative.

"However, since the absolute numbers speak a clear language, we see no evidence of a systematic limitation of the meaningfulness of the survey," says the study.

When it came to the type of hostility, a different picture emerged among the local politicians who had experienced threats.

• 41 percent of the participants who had experienced threats reported

  insults and threats by phone calls, emails, letters or faxes.

• 44.7 percent of these officials and elected officials tell of

  insults or threats in social networks

  .

• 47.6 percent stated that they had already been

  insulted or threatened in a direct encounter

  - reported at the party or information stand, for example.

• 9.6 percent of officials and elected officials who have experienced threats state that

  they have been physically attacked or harassed at least once

  in the course of their engagement .

According to the researchers, the popular thesis that threats and assaults occur primarily in eastern Germany cannot be confirmed.

The cities with the highest percentage of hostilities are Dresden and Erfurt, followed by Munich, Solingen, Ludwigshafen, Bochum and Trier, but exclusively cities from the old federal states.

In addition, the attacks happen regardless of the sex or migration background of those affected.

According to the study, however, it is striking that members of the AfD report threat scenarios with above-average frequency.

sol/dpa