German mayor warns against “hatred” after fatal stabbing – DW – 23/01/2025

Aschaffenburg Mayor Jürgen Herzing said he was “shocked” after a fatal stabbing in his city and appealed for calm as the attack accelerates Germany’s debate on migration ahead of the February 23 elections.

Two people, including a 2-year-old boy, were killed and others were seriously injured in Wednesday’s attack in Bavaria, southern Germany.

Herzing sees “similarities” with earlier attacks

While laying wreaths in the city, Herzing said there were “parallels” to other attacks, referring to deadly incidents that occurred in the German cities of Magdeburg, Solingen and Würzburg.

In each case, the migrant “hurts and kills innocent people,” he said.

Police arrested a 28-year-old man from Afghanistan in connection with the attack.

According to the police, the suspect had behaved aggressively in the past and was undergoing psychiatric treatment. Moreover, he stated that he would voluntarily leave Germany in December, but remained in the country while receiving psychiatric help.

“We cannot and should never attribute the actions of one person to an entire population group,” Herzing said, noting feelings of anger, resentment and “thoughts of revenge” among the city’s residents.

“I feel like my own child died or my brother died or got hurt,” Herzing said. “I think it’s the same for a lot of other people.”

Some of the stabbing victims were from migrant backgrounds, and the 2-year-old who died in the attack was from Morocco. The injured girl came from Syria.

The suspect charged in the attack is expected to appear in court on Thursday.

The leader of the German opposition calls for a new asylum policy after the attack in Aschaffenburg

Meanwhile, German opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said Germany must review its migration and asylum policy after the attack.

“We are dealing with the shreds of 10 years of Germany’s flawed asylum and migration policy,” Merz said, calling for an end to all illegal entries into the country.

He said Germany should use domestic law to step into the EU’s “dysfunctional” asylum law, while calling for permanent controls of all German borders.

Merz wants to implement this policy if he becomes chancellor after February’s elections. The CDU is currently leading in most polls, with polls showing it enjoys between 28% and 34% of the support of the German public.

Some Germans blame Merz’s CDU for the state of migration to Germany. In 2015, former CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than a million asylum seekers, mainly from the Middle East and Afghanistan, to enter Germany.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which ranks second in most election polls, has called for the deportation of “dangerous” asylum seekers. AfD leader in the Bundestag Tino Chrupalla said Germany must “maintain diplomatic contacts with Afghanistan” to facilitate deportations, calling for closer cooperation on the issue between the German government and the Afghan Taliban.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who belongs to the center-left Social Democratic Party and is running for another term in the Chancellery, previously called the stabbing an “unbelievable act of terror.”

“The authorities must, above all, make every effort to find out why the attacker was still in Germany. Consequences must be drawn immediately from the findings – it is not enough to talk,” Scholz said, adding that he was “sick and tired.” “such acts of violence.”

wd/nm (Reuters, AFP)