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CRIME

SPD’s Tauss steps down after child porn probe

Social Democratic (SPD) parliamentarian Jörg Tauss said Friday he would step down from his leadership positions after his offices were searched in a child pornography investigation.

Published: 6 March 2009 11:43 CET
SPD's Tauss steps down after child porn probe
Photo: DPA

The 55-year-old said in a statement that he would give up his roles as the centre-left SPD’s parliamentary expert on research and education, his spot among the party’s parliamentary group leadership and his position as SPD general secretary for the state of Baden-Württemberg. However, he intends to remain an MP.

Tauss said he did not want to damage his party and was “absolutely sure” that he would be quickly cleared of suspicion, saying he would make “a serious effort to support and cooperate” with investigators.

The Karlsruhe state prosecutor’s office said “relevant” child pornography material had been found on Tauss’ computer in his Berlin apartment on Thursday, adding that the politician would have to provide an explanation. The searches do not mean Tauss will be charged with any wrongdoing, the spokesperson emphasised.

Tauss has been in parliament since 1994. He told the media on Thursday that he’d been involved in fighting the child pornography scene for years, adding that he couldn’t be sure if the searches were part of a “plot for revenge.”

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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