Police in Germany have arrested a suspect in a case where a death threat was sent to politicians from Die Linke (The Left), one of the country’s main liberal parties, in Landau. The suspect is a former member of Die Linke who wrote the threat to seem as if it had come from a Right-winger in the hope of getting publicity for the party.

The Prosecutor’s Office in Koblenz announced that police arrested the suspect after searching his home in the nearby town of Kandel on Monday. The man, 63, confessed to the crime during the search. He is a former member of Die Linke himself, according to a report by Die Welt.

The Treasurer of the Landau branch of Die Linke, Daniel Emmerich, had received a letter in his mailbox on June 6. It was addressed to him, as well as to fellow local Die Linke politicians Tobias Schreiner, Bastian Stock, and Jonas Wadle. “Terrorist antifas wanted,” the letter read. Along with the note were four unfired bullets.

Die Linke at first publicized the letter as a threat from Right-wing terrorists. Bastian Stock, Landau’s City Councilor, one of those named in the letter, said that “Right-wing terror is booming in Germany” in response to the incident.

Police had tracked the suspect to his home following an investigation. He told investigators that he had never actually intended to harm the politicians, but said that he had hoped that Die Linke would get lots of publicity as a result of the incident.

He said that he was inspired to send the letter after an incident in which members of a trade union who were attending an anti-lockdown protest were assaulted and severely injured by Antifa extremists in Stuttgart last month, as previously reported by Voice of Europe. Some on the German Right have accused Die Linke of being associated with Antifa extremists.

voiceofeurope.com/2020/06/germany-left-wing-extremist-arrested-for-making-fake-right-wing-death-threat/