BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — A Cameroon-born German candidate for a regional election in the country’s east was racially assaulted while out campaigning, police said Friday.

Adeline Abimnwi Awemo was putting up posters in Cottbus, in the northeastern state of Brandenburg, with her family on Thursday when a 29-year-old stranger attacked her, grabbing Awemo by the throat.

“You are not human beings,” the assailant is reported as saying.

Awemo, who has German citizenship, had to go to hospital after the attack, police said.

The Secretary-General of Awemo’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party condemned the attack.

“It perfectly illustrates what is going on in our country... Violence and hate are on the rise,” Carsten Linnemann told journalists from the Funke media group.

The German far right has made significant inroads in Brandenburg and in other former communist East German regions such as Saxony and Thuringia.

In recent times, Germany has seen a rise in politically motivated attacks.

In 2023, authorities recorded 60,028 offenses of this sort, around 1,100 more than in 2022.