Henriette
Reker, victim of a racist attack on the campaign trail, is expected to be
elected the first female mayor of Cologne. Intial vote counts gave Reker an
overwhelming victory over rival Jochen Ott.
Deutsche Welle, 18 Oct 2015
Early
results on Sunday indicated that Henriette Reker, the victim of a knife attack the day before , has been elected mayor of Cologne. With an absolute majority
predicted of around 52 percent, Reker was set to become the city's first woman
in the position.
Her closest
competitor was Jochen Ott of the Social Democrats (SPD), who have been in the
power in Cologne since 2009. Ott garnered around 32 percent of the vote,
marking a clear victory for Reker, an independent supported by Chancellor
Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), as well as the Greens and the Free
Democrats (FDP).
Originally
scheduled for September, the Cologne mayoral election was pushed to Sunday
after some voting slips were printed incorrectly, which may be why the ballot
was not postponed after the attack against Reker.
Xenophobic
attacker targets Reker
A
44-year-old man stabbed the 58-year-old Reker in the neck while she was
visiting an outdoor market in Cologne's Braunsfeld neighborhood on Saturday.
According to police, the man - an unemployed former painter and varnisher
living on welfare – took issue with Reker's pro-refugee policies. Witnesses
said he was shouting about refugees as he struck Reker.
As part of
her work at the city of Cologne's social services department, Reker was charged
with arranging accommodation for the thousands of asylum seekers in the city.
The
assailant stabbed four more people before being subdued by police. No one was
fatally wounded, but Reker was rushed to the hospital and immediately underwent
surgery. A candlelit vigil to protest xenophobia was held in Berlin as
well-wishers gathered outside Cologne's city hall to show support for Reker.
University
Hospital Cologne told the press that "the healing process for this kind of
injury usually takes a certain amount of time," but that Reker's prognosis
was very positive.
es/tj (dpa, Reuters)
A profile of Cologne's Henriette Reker, who was seriously wounded in the neck http://t.co/Zgc3fC10fG pic.twitter.com/L8zvaxwPvY
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 18 oktober 2015
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