Fatal German park stabbing with asylum seeker suspect fires up migration debate ahead of election
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The police saluting in front of a wreath on Jan 23, the day after two people were killed in a knife attack in Aschaffenburg, Germany.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BERLIN – The arrest of an Afghan asylum seeker suspected of killing two people in a knife attack targeting children at a German park has prompted calls for a much tougher migration stance and fired up campaigning for Germany’s Feb 23 national election.
The suspect – a 28-year-old Afghan national
The suspect had his asylum process closed and said he would voluntarily leave Germany in December, but he did not leave and remained under treatment, Bavaria’s interior minister said.
A two-year-old boy of Moroccan descent and a 41-year-old man who tried to intervene in the attack, which occurred at a park in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg on Jan 22, died of their injuries. Three other people were injured.
“My wish list would be that we have a proper deportation policy, that people who are obliged to leave the country also leave this country,” said Ms Katrin Burger, organiser of a protest rally held on Jan 22 in Aschaffenburg.
The stabbings add to a string of violent attacks in Germany that have boosted concerns over security and migration and fuelled support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which opinion polls put in second place behind the mainstream conservatives.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are trailing, convened an emergency meeting with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the security authorities late on Jan 22, branding the attack an “unbelievable act of terror”.
“I am sick and tired of seeing such acts of violence occurring here every few weeks by perpetrators who have actually come to us to find protection here,” Mr Scholz said in a statement.
“A false sense of tolerance is completely inappropriate. The authorities must work flat out to find out why the attacker was still in Germany in the first place. Consequences must follow immediately from the findings. It is not enough to talk.”
‘Political answers’
Mr Friedrich Merz, the election front runner and leader of the Christian Democrat (CDU) conservatives, said: “This moves us, this pains us, this calls for clear political answers.”
However, some Germans blame the CDU, and in particular Mr Merz’s predecessor and long-time chancellor Angela Merkel, for encouraging the large-scale influx of asylum seekers and migrants, mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, in 2015.
AfD leader Tino Chrupalla, whose party has won the backing of tech billionaire Elon Musk
“Dangerous asylum seekers must be deported. We want to maintain diplomatic contacts with Afghanistan for this purpose. Dangerous parks must be cleared of criminals, and made accessible to children and families again,” Mr Chrupalla said on X.
The liberal Free Democrats also demanded closer contacts with the Afghan Taliban, following Austria’s lead, to facilitate removing failed asylum seekers.
Investigators for the attack are focusing strongly on the suspect’s psychological illness, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said, adding that an initial search of his accommodation in an asylum shelter turned up no evidence of radical Islamist sympathies. REUTERS
