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CRIME

Germany to hunt down fines for EU traffic violations

The German government is reportedly preparing to hunt down drivers guilty of traffic violations in other EU countries in order to collect a potential windfall in fines.

Published: 1 February 2010 12:35 CET
Germany to hunt down fines for EU traffic violations
Photo: DPA

The daily Bild reported on Monday that the authorities would begin following up all fines over €70 incurred across the 27-nation bloc starting in October.

“The EU requirement should improve traffic safety abroad and among other things help reduce speeding,” Free Democratic MP Florian Toncar told Bild. “That should fill the state’s coffers with several million euros.”

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is increasing personnel at the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn solely to focus on tracking down and collecting fines from drivers living in Germany.

According to the paper, 99 new positions could cost up to €6 million a year, but the collected EU-wide fines are estimated to bring in €9 million to €10 million annually.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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