Cologne Mayoral Candidate Wins Election a Day After Stabbing

Police said the attack was a “racist” and “political” act. More than 615,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East have made their way to Europe so far this year, particularly as the region has received an influx of people fleeing from Syria.

A German politician has been seriously wounded in a knife attack police suspect was linked to her work dealing with the ongoing refugee crisis.

The suspect appeared to have acted alone and had no previous police record, Mr Wagner added. “With regard to the current health condition of Ms Reker, I can inform you that she has suffered serious injuries, but her condition is stable at the moment”.

According to police, the man – an unemployed former painter and varnisher living on welfare – took issue with Reker’s pro-refugee policies.

Henriette Reker, an independent candidate who runs the city’s programs for migrants, was stabbed several times in the neck, police said.

The progressive candidate, who was still recovering in a hospital Sunday afternoon, had won 52.7 of the almost 75 percent of votes that had been counted, according to AFP, setting her up to be the first female mayor of Cologne. She’s been in charge of Cologne’s social affairs and integration department for five years.

Turkish officials said this week that the plan was still a “draft” and nothing had been agreed yet.

The 58-year-old trained lawyer was largely unknown at the national level before Saturday’s attack, which was widely condemned with Merkel herself expressing her “shock” at the incident.

Meanwhile, the flood of people seeking to reach Germany showed no sign of letting up with thousands of migrants forced to seek a new route to northern Europe after Hungary shut its eastern border with Croatia overnight.

Politically-motivated attacks are relatively rare in Germany.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, was shot while campaigning as Interior Minister in October 1990, leaving him using a wheelchair, and months earlier a mentally disturbed woman had stabbed Oskar Lafontaine, then a prominent member of Germany’s main opposition party, also in Cologne.