This time the letter came by email, Mohring said in a video published on Twitter on Sunday. 

The threat said that he should stop his election campaign at noon on Sunday. The Thuringians elect a new state parliament on Sunday, October 27th.

“Right-wing extremists demanded this of me,” the politician said. “If I didn’t do that, they said they wanted to stab me, like the mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker (independent), or even detonate a car bomb.”

Investigators assume that there is a right-wing extremist background to the crime. Cologne's mayor Reker (non-party), to whom the current threat refers, was stabbed in the neck by a far-right extremist on October 2015 shortly before her election.

READ ALSO: Cologne mayor tells court of being stabbed in neck

Mohring also published a photo of the email on Twitter. The State Criminal Investigation Office is currently investigating. 

“We must not leave any room for hate, violence, aggression, death threats,” Mohring said. Other top candidates for the state elections next Sunday could also be threatened, he added.

A second threat

Mohring had already received a death threat at the end of September. According to the CDU, the sender of the postcard indirectly referred to the murder of pro-immigration politician Walter Lübcke (CDU), who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in June at his home near Kassel. 

READ ALSO: Far-right motive suspected in German pro-migrant politician murder

According to the threatening letter, Mohring was also going to receive a “head shot”.

In its current annual report, German intelligence counts 24,100 right-wing extremists in Germany, more than half of whom, according to the authority, are “oriented towards violence”. 

READ ALSO: 12,700 violent far-right extremists in Germany, government claims

Vocabulary

investigators – (die) Ermittler

Top candidate/special candidate – (der) Spitzenkandidat

partyless/independent – parteilos

Death threat – (die) Morddrohung

soon/shortly – demnächst

We're aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.