The murder of Rouven L., a 29-year-old police officer, last week during a knife attack in Mannheim has generated a heated debate about security, immigration and Islamism in Germany just days before the European elections. The agent died on Sunday from injuries to the back of the head that he suffered the previous Friday at the hands of a 25-year-old man born in Afghanistan who arrived in Germany in 2014.
The event has brought the debate on Islamist extremism and the deportations of immigrants who commit crimes back into the public spotlight at an extremely sensitive political moment from which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could benefit. The party has made the immigration debate practically its only campaign issue, to the point of trying to convert the elections, which in Germany are held on the 9th, into a kind of referendum on the immigration policy of the coalition government led by the social democrat Olaf Scholz, and also of the European Union.
In the ranks of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, more and more voices are being heard demanding tougher measures against Islamism and warning about “false tolerance.” “If the obvious suspicion that this is indeed an Islamist act is confirmed, it will be time to have an honest debate about the dangers of Islamism, without naivety, without blinders, without double standards,” wrote Danyal Bayaz, Finance Minister of Baden-Wüttemberg, of the Greens, in their X account.
“Mass deportations”
Expressions that are usually heard more in the mouths of conservative politicians, such as the need for “mass deportations”, have returned to the news after, at the beginning of the year, the Bundestag gave the green light to a law that in theory facilitates them. The opposition accuses Scholz’s Executive of not putting it into practice.
This Tuesday, the same city was the scene of another attack, this time against a local AfD politician, who was injured with a sharp object, apparently a cutter. The attacker was arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital and the police have reported that he showed obvious signs of mental disorder. The party has tried to present the attack as part of a campaign by left-wing extremists against members of the AfD, but the police say there is no indication that the detainee knew that he was attacking a politician from this formation.
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The Minister of the Interior, the social democrat Nancy Faeser, defends herself against criticism, which includes her alleged inaction in the face of demonstrations such as that of the Muslim Interaktiv movement, whose supporters marched through Hamburg praising the caliphate. They also blame the minister for not closing the Islamic Center of Hamburg, which they claim is controlled by Iran. Faeser, however, responds that it is his Government that has approved “a broad legislative package in favor of faster and more frequent deportations” and that has toughened the laws to expel criminals, “especially those on the Islamist spectrum,” he said on Tuesday. at a press conference.
A few days before an election in which a rise of the extreme right is expected, the Government of social democrats, greens and liberals is also studying how to find a way to begin deporting to Syria and Afghanistan, especially in the case of criminals and “people dangerous,” Faeser announced. This is a controversial decision, since Germany does not return nationals from countries where their lives are in danger. Berlin completely halted deportations to Afghanistan after the Taliban took power in 2021.
The man, identified by German media as Sulaiman Ataee, who last Friday attacked participants in a rally of the far-right and anti-Islam organization Pax Europa with a knife, comes from Afghanistan. Investigators believe that the target of the attacker, who arrived in Germany in 2014 and is married with two children, was Michael Stürzenberger, known for calling to combat political Islam. The activist was wounded in the face and chest, but his injuries were not serious. The deceased police officer was trying to calm down on the ground who, in the confusion of the moment, he believed was the aggressor, when Ataee pounced on him and stabbed him several times in the back, as can be seen in a video that has circulated on the networks. social.
In this climate of confrontation, some top-level politicians, such as the Foreign Minister, the Green Annalena Baerbock, warn about hot immigration debates. That is, she assured in X, “the objective of the extremists”, that what they seek is to “divide”. Instead, the president of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Christian Democrat Hendrik Wüst, has asked to call a spade a spade. “It was a murder, obviously for religious reasons. An act of terror. If people do not want to recognize and accept this, any attempt to solve it will fail,” he is quoted as saying. Frankfurter Allgemeine.
The latest polls before the European elections show that Germans are concerned about immigration and the integration of those who settle in the country. In the public television Deutschlandtrend survey, published in May, respondents point to refugees and asylum policy as Europe’s main problem. 41% of them mention it, far ahead of the 34% who describe international conflicts and threats as this and the 21% who believe that the main concern is climate change.
AfD has tried to capitalize on this state of opinion by presenting itself as the only party that looks directly at the problem and accusing immigrants of violent acts. It is too early to know what effect the Mannheim attack may have on the ultra party’s voting intention expectations, says Peter Matuschek, researcher at the Forsa opinion institute. Until last week, he explains, the party was still at 14% in the polls.
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