HERDECKE, Germany — The newly elected mayor of the German town of Herdecke, Iris Stalzer, is in critical condition after being stabbed multiple times in what police described as a “serious violent attack” at her home on Tuesday.
Authorities said Stalzer, 57, managed to drag herself back inside her house after the attack before being discovered and airlifted to hospital, where she remains in intensive care.
Broadcaster WDR reported that the Social Democrat politician sustained stab wounds to her neck and abdomen. Police sealed off the road around her residence as forensic officers combed the area for evidence.
Prosecutors and police said in a joint statement that they were investigating “all possibilities,” adding that “close family involvement cannot be ruled out at the present time.”
German news agency DPA reported that Stalzer’s teenage son and daughter, aged 15 and 17, had been taken in for questioning.
The Bild newspaper cited investigators saying her son told police that his mother had been attacked by several men, though authorities have not confirmed that account.
Stalzer, a longtime labour lawyer and fixture in Herdecke’s local politics, was elected mayor in recent regional elections and was due to assume office in November after defeating a conservative incumbent with backing from the Greens.
Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned the attack and called for a “swift and thorough investigation.”
The case has stirred painful memories of past attacks on German politicians. In 2019, conservative regional president Walter Lübcke was murdered by a far-right extremist, and in 2015, Henriette Reker, then a mayoral candidate in Cologne, survived a knife attack by another extremist.
A recent study found that six in ten politicians in Germany have faced violence at least once, with one in five saying such incidents made them more reluctant to appear in public.
As the investigation continues, the assault on Stalzer has reignited debate about the growing hostility and threats faced by public officials in Europe’s largest democracy.
