Germany announces tougher knife laws after Solingen festival stabbing

BERLIN - German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Aug 29 the government would toughen knife controls and curb benefits for some illegal migrants in response to a suspected Islamist stabbing.

Three people were killed and eight others injured

at a festival in the western city of Solingen on Aug 23, in an attack allegedly carried out by a 26-year-old Syrian man with links to the Islamic State group.

The knife attack has inflamed the debate over immigration in Germany and put pressure on the government to act ahead of key regional elections on Sept 1.

The stabbing has “shocked us deeply”, Ms Faeser said, at a press conference on Aug 29, alongside Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.

The threats highlighted by the attack demanded a packet of “tough measures”, including tightening weapons controls and strengthening security services, Ms Faeser said.

Carrying knives at festivals, like the one in Solingen, as well as “sports events and other similar public events” will be banned, Faeser said.

There will be reasoned exceptions to the ban, including for those working in hospitality and performers, she added.

Knives will also be banned on long-distance trains, the minister said, with police given more powers to search members of the public.

Benefits cuts

The alleged Solingen attacker, named as Issa Al H, initially evaded police before being taken into custody on Aug 24.

The suspect was meant to have been deported to Bulgaria, where he had first arrived in the European Union, but the operation failed after he went missing.

The seeming ease with which the 26-year-old avoided efforts to remove him from the country has piled pressure on the government to crack down on illegal migration.

“The entire process... must be examined, must be made more effective, so that we can deport people more quickly,” Justice Minister Mr Buschmann said on Aug 29.

Cases where an individual cannot be removed because authorities are unable to locate them “must end”, Mr Buschmann said.

In future, Germany would refuse benefits payments to migrants set to be deported to other countries in the European Union, Ms Faeser said.

“For cases who have to pursue their asylum procedure in other member states and who have already had a transfer request approved in the member state in question, the receipt of benefits should be excluded,” Ms Faeser said.

Ms Faeser also indicated that the government would endeavour to “remove hurdles” to quicker deportations.

The government would also continue to work “intensively” to restart deportations to Afghanistan and Syria, which have been halted for several years, Ms Faeser said.

Regional elections

The debate over immigration has dominated the run-up to elections in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony on Sept 1, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling well.

The anti-immigration AfD has accused successive governments of contributing to “chaos” by allowing too many migrants into the country.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, meanwhile, look set for a weak showing, as do the other parties in his coalition, the Greens and the pro-business FDP.

The conservative CDU, Germany’s main opposition party, has called on the government to take stronger action to limit immigration.

In search of a cross-party response, Mr Scholz on Aug 28 said he would hold talks on migration policy with the conservatives and representatives from Germany’s states.

The initial measures announced on Aug 29 were not “wrong” but neither were they “the measures necessary”, senior CDU politician Carsten Linnemann told the Rheinische Post daily.

The federal government is “not prepared to seriously address the issue of restricting illegal migration”, Mr Linnemann said. AFP