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Two dozen stolen FDP posters appeared in a forest. The police have so far registered a total of 13 reports during the election campaign in the Fulda district.
Fulda/Nüsttal – Right at the start of the election campaign before the Local elections in Hesse The FDP had the theft and theft in Fulda and the city region Complaint about damage to several election posters. Jürgen Plappert was particularly affectedwho is running for the district council and municipal council in Künzell. Now a number of posters have resurfaced.
At the beginning of February, twelve posters with Jürgen Plappert's likeness were stolen within two days from Frankfurter Strasse in Fulda. Two of them were soon found badly damaged nearby. As a result, more posters were stolen – including in Petersberg. A whole stack has now been discovered. The East Hesse police headquarters confirmed the discovery of 24 FDP election posters in a forest near Nüsttal-Gotthards. A hiker discovered it there.
Stolen FDP election posters reappear in Waldstück
“Last week I was standing at an information stand with party friends at the Haunecenter in Hünfeld when a police car suddenly drove up and the police officer asked which of us was among those responsible,” Plappert now reports. The officer then took him to the vehicle and opened the sliding door. “There were around 30 posters in the car,” says the liberal. A large part of it hung in Petersberg. This is understandable because the posters had numbered stickers on them, which are required in Petersberg.
Plappert has now put up most of the posters again – except for two. “One was so badly damaged that it could no longer be used. I discovered traces of blood on the other and therefore handed it over to the police,” says the Künzeller.
Despite all the joy about the recovered posters, the balance remains negative. In total, the FDP lost around 70 posters. The Liberals continue to be affected by vandalism – including Plappert himself again. At the beginning of February, three large posters – so-called Wesselmanns – were defaced. Unknown people had painted over Plappert's face with black paint on two posters on Petersberger Strasse and on one at the Rosengarten parking garage in Fulda.
Now the same three posters are affected again, after they had been repaired in the meantime. “This time with a gray color, it goes better with my jacket in the picture,” says Plappert, who, despite all the anger over theft and vandalism, still retained a sense of humor.
Local politicians of all stripes from the region had already become angry after the first cases became known: they not only vented their displeasure because the damage and theft of posters was an interference with the democratic competition between parties and voter groups. They had also emphasized several times that many candidates themselves spend money on election advertising and invest time in hanging it up.
Police have so far filed 13 criminal complaints
In total, according to the East Hesse police headquarters, 13 criminal complaints have been filed for the Fulda district in this year's local election campaign regarding damage to property and theft of election posters. According to the police, the FDP alone has filed several reports. It can be assumed that not all cases are reported.
While CDU district manager Erik Schäckermann explained that perhaps not all defamations, damage and the like would be known to the district association, Green co-district chairman Knut Heiland emphasized that his party had decided to consistently report such cases. He left it open whether the request could actually be implemented in the end. The AfD also announced to our newspaper that it would report damage and theft. The SPD had already changed its poster strategy from the outset and refrained from using large posters.
However, the risk of reporting does not seem to sufficiently deter perpetrators. Most recently, the police reported several incidents in the region: Between Thursday around 8 p.m. and Friday around 8 a.m., unknown people violently tore down a total of 30 election posters from their locations in the inner city area of Gersfeld.
On Saturday afternoon around 4:30 p.m., unknown people tore down an election poster on Niesiger Street in Fulda and disposed of it in a trash can. The perpetrators are described as male and of thin build. One of the suspects is bald and was wearing light-colored clothing. The other man is described as having dark hair and wearing dark clothing.
Police are looking for witnesses to poster vandalism cases
The police are looking for two more suspects after they tore down a total of eleven election posters on Linkbergstrasse in Großenbach around 2:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. One of the people can be described as follows: male, between 16 and 18 years old, slim build, short wavy hair, dark clothing.
In Eiterfeld, unknown people also damaged an election poster on Bahnhofstrasse early on Sunday around 5:30 a.m. by setting it on fire. In all cases, the East Hesse Police Headquarters will receive information on telephone (0661) 1050, any other police station or via the online watchdog at www.polizei.hessen.de.
