German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described Monday, August 26, as an act of “terrorism against us all” the deadly attack in Solingen – which left three dead and eight injured on Friday 23 August – for which a Syrian suspected of links to the Islamic State (IS) organisation was arrested. During his trip, he said he was ” angry (…) against the Islamists who threaten peaceful coexistence between us all”.
He also promised to get tougher “very quickly” legislation on the carrying of weapons and “do everything” For “to expel those who cannot and must not remain in Germany” as the tragedy has rekindled the debate on migration policy in the country.
Mr Scholz, accompanied by regional leaders, had earlier paid his respects at the scene of Friday night's attack, which left three dead and eight injured during local festivities. Bouquets of flowers, candles and messages testify to the emotion that has gripped the city of some 160,000 inhabitants located in the west of the country, in North Rhine-Westphalia.
High-risk regional elections
The suspect, named by the courts as Issa Al H., arrived in the country in December 2022, according to local authorities, and was subject to an expulsion measure to Bulgaria, a European Union state where his entry had been registered and where he should have filed his asylum application, under EU rules. According to German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, he was not on the lists of Islamist extremists considered dangerous.
With high-stakes regional elections in two eastern German states just a week away, the attack is adding to the pressure on the head of government. The far-right AfD party, which is well placed to secure an unprecedented victory in regional elections next weekend in two former GDR states, Saxony and Thuringia, has accused successive governments of provoking “chaos” by welcoming too many immigrants. On Monday, its co-president Alice Weidel called on public television ZDF “a halt to immigration, reception and naturalization for 5 years.”
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative CDU, the main opposition party, urged the government not to “welcome more refugees” coming from “Syria and Afghanistan”.
Source: Lemonde
