Schroeder slapped at campaign stop

[demdave]

MANNHEIM, Germany (AP) -- A man slapped Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the face during a campaign rally Tuesday, causing no apparent injury, police said.

The man lunged at Schroeder while he was giving autographs to a crowd of people at a Mannheim civic center during a campaign stop for his Social Democratic Party ahead of European Parliament elections next month.

Security agents subdued the man, and police took him into custody, Mannheim police spokesman Volker Dressler said. Police did not immediately identify him.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/05/18/pf-463999.html

[Kellanved]

1. Note : the event was a reception for new party members

Not really a public event. The man's identity won't be released, Germany privacy laws forbid it. As a eye witness put it "That man was certainly not a SPD member. A Social Democrat would never do such a thing." ;-)

Anyway, German politicians are not protected to the extent American politicians are. I've met Federal Ministers at shopping centers several times and even the Chancellor once on a crowded boulevard in Berlin.

[bobbieinok]

2. any guess as to why?????

[Dirk39]

5. The guy is 52 years old and unemployed...

http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/bw/2004/05/18/index25.html

And I guess after the SPD has lost nearly half of it's members since the Blairists under the leadership of Schröder have taken over the party - it's the biggest crisis in their history - they don't look twice, if there's any chance to get new members...

Maybe the guy did read the book, Schröder's wife - a former journalist for Germany's most idiotic far-right-wing daily newspaper - has written about the failures of antiauthoritarian education:-)
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[TheMightyFavog]

6. Is this jeopardizing their coalition woith the Greens?

End of Line.

[MSgt213]

3. The police should have gave him a warning. Hurt him next time

[markses]

4. Can you imagine?

Anybody who did this to Bush would be executed on the spot.

And the nation would cheer.

And Bush's approval would hit 65% again.

We're all demented.