German police said on Wednesday they had released a 52-year-old man detained for slapping Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the face at a campaign rally in Mannheim on Tuesday evening.
Schroeder was signing autographs for a small group of newcomers to his Social Democrat party when the man approached. According to eyewitnesses, he smacked Schroeder with his right hand so hard that the side of the chancellor’s face turned red.
Four bodyguards immediately tackled the man and dragged him away. The man, later identified as unemployed and from Saarland in western Germany, was detained and questioned for about three hours before being released.
“There was no reason to arrest him and he was thus released,” said a Mannheim police spokesman. “An investigation into bodily harm has been started. The chancellor was not hurt.”
Eyewitnesses quoted in Bild newspaper said Schroeder made a tapping motion on his forehead — appearing to suggest the man was mad — and went on signing autographs before delivering a speech to the rally. He is due to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Wednesday.
Schroeder’s popularity waning
Schroeder’s popularity has fallen since winning re-election in 2002 due to cuts in welfare and unemployment benefits.
The incident revived memories of more serious attacks on German politicians in recent years.
Germany’s former Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot in the spine in 1990, only months after former Social Democrat leader Oskar Lafontaine survived a knife attack by a deranged woman.
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was hit by a paint bomb that punctured an ear drum at a Green party conference in 1999 over his support for the U.S.-led campaign in Kosovo.
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl was the target of a less serious assault in 2000, when he was hit by a cream pie at a book signing in Berlin.
