Solingen knife attack heats up German election campaign

On September 1, Saxony and Thuringia will elect new state parliaments. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party known for its hostility towards migration and for being in part right-wing extremist, could become the strongest party in both federal states. It is currently polling at around 30%, and the deadly knife attack in Solingen, a city in Germany's most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, may very well give the party an additional boost.

For years, the party's calls for a much more restrictive immigration policy have been greeted with approval, especially in eastern German states such as Saxony and Thuringia. The debate over the deportation of criminal refugees has intensified in the wake of the suspected terrorist act committed by Issa Al H., a Syrian asylum seeker whose application for asylum was rejected.

Speaking on public broadcaster ZDF, AfD leader Alice Weidel called for an "immediate ban on immigration, admission, and naturalization for at least five years." Long before the massacre in Solingen, Weidel had spoken in the Bundestag of "subsidized knife men."

Not only the AfD is calling for radical measures

There are also calls from within the ranks of the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) for swift and tangible consequences. Shortly after the knife attack in Solingen, party leader Friedrich Merz called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to "work with us quickly and without further delay on decisions aimed at effectively preventing further terrorist attacks like the one last Friday in our country." He said that deportations to Syria and Afghanistan should be carried out.

Germany does not deport rejected asylum seekers to countries deemed generally unsafe, in accordance with the Geneva Refugee Convention. Due to the ongoing civil war in Syria, no deportations have been conducted from Germany to Syria in the last twelve years. But now, conservative politicians have been arguing that some regions in Syria are safe.

"We will not accept any more refugees from these countries," demanded Merz in reference to Syria and Afghanistan. He also reacted to reports of refugees allegedly returning to their home countries for vacations: "Anyone who travels from Germany back to their home country as a refugee should immediately lose all residence status in Germany."

Kevin Kühnert, the General Secretary of Scholz's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), immediately rejected this demand on public broadcaster ARD. He said that many of Merz's proposals are not possible because they conflict with the German constitution. This is true, for example, concerning the individual right to asylum.

Mario Voigt, the CDU's lead candidate in the upcoming state elections in Thuringia, made his own demand. He is calling for repatriation centers where rejected asylum seekers should be held. The centers would serve to prevent people from going into hiding prior to deportation.

"We need a fundamental change in asylum policy," Voigt told the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Scholz has announced swift consequences. Following a visit to Solingen, he held out the prospect of a rapid tightening of weapons laws.

"Everything that is in our power, within our means, must be done," Scholz said. He also said new regulations must be considered to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.

Chancellor Scholz appeals for calm

The act of terrorism left him "angry and furious," said Scholz. However, the Chancellor also called for calm. "We are all one country that stands together. And we will not allow this unity to be destroyed by evil criminals who act with the evilest of convictions, instead we will act against them with the utmost decisiveness and severity and will not slow in our pursuit of them."

The neoliberalFree Democratic Party (FDP)Scholz's smallest coalition partner in government, which had previously been reluctant to tighten the law, is now signaling a willingness to compromise. Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has announced that the government will discuss the matter.

And the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, which is on summer recess until early September, is likely to address the consequences of the knife attack. The CDU has called for a special session of the committee on internal affairs, in which, among others, the Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD), who is responsible for security, will be questioned.

Meanwhile, Pascal Kober, the federal government's Commissioner for Victims, and his colleague Barbara Havliza from North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal state where the city of Solingen is located, have vowed assistance to the victims of the terror attack.

"We will try to help wherever we can," the two promised in a press release. "Together they will work to arrange psychosocial, practical, and financial help where necessary."

This article was originally written in German.

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