AfD adherent hit with bottle in Berlin

The police agency for politically motivated crimes is investigating a reported attack on a man campaigning for Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Berlin Sunday. Police say a passing cyclist hit the 58-year-old on the head with a bottle as he attempted to hang a placard for the anti-immigrant party ahead of next week's city-state elections in Berlin.

Media report that the cyclist fled after hitting the man, who did not require medical attention. Police said that, rather than coming to his aid, passersby insulted the man for supporting the AfD. Several officers were deployed to the scene.

On Saturday, German media report, another man was attacked while campaigning for the AfD in Berlin's gentrifying Neukölln district.

AfD's disappointing day

The AfD came in fourth in municipal elections in the state of Lower Saxony on Sunday. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) survived the AfD's challenge from the right to receive 34.4 percent of votes, ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD), who received 31.2 percent. and the Greens, who took 10.9 percent, the state's electoral commission announced on Monday. The AfD received just 7.8 percent of the vote - well under the 12 percent projected, although the party had double-digit support in some cities.

The result represented a slight dip from the 2011 Lower Saxony municipal elections for the CDU, which had received 37 percent five years ago. Some 55.5 percent of voters turned out for Sunday's elections, which fill 29,116 local council seats with candidates from up to 22 parties.

That could indicate a loss of momentum for the AfD, which pummeled Merkel's party into third place in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania's state elections September 4, taking 20.8 percent of the vote to the CDU's 19 percent. Still, a plurality voters swung the other way, with the Social Democrats and Left party combining for a nearly 44 percent share of the vote compared with the right-wing parties' not quite 40 percent.

The AfD has successfully preyed on German insecurity over Merkel's refugee policies to attract voters from the CDU; its more conservative Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union; and the neo-Nazi-linked National Democratic Party.

mkg/kms (Reuters, dpa)