The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) demonstrated on Monday in Magdeburg “in memory” of the victims of the fatal accidentwhose alleged author is a Saudi refugeewhich relaunched the debate on security and immigration.
Terror came to our city: Ultra-right
“Terror came to our city”declared Jan Wenzel Schmidthead of the AfD in the Saxony-Anhalt region, of which Magdeburg It is capital, in front of several hundred people.
The far-right leader condemned “the monstrous political failure” that led to the attack, whose alleged perpetrator is a Saudi refugee who may have been motivated by “discontent” with the treatment given by Germany to asylum seekers from his country.
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“We must close the borders […]”We cannot continue hosting lunatics from all countries,” he added to the militants of the anti-immigration party.
The co-president of the formation, Alice Wiedel, called for “change so that we can live in safety again,” as the crowd chanted “Expulsion, expulsion, expulsion!”
The AfD is in second place in the polls ahead of the early legislative elections on February 23, ahead of the left-wing party of the head of the Government, Olaf Scholz.
The anti-racist movement “Gib Hass keine Chance” (“Don’t give hate any chance”) gathered at the same time nearby, at the site of the drama that left five dead, including a 9-year-old boy, and more than 200 injured in this city in eastern Germany.
The anti-Afd initiative declared itself “dismayed and furious that some people want to use this cruel act for political purposes” and called for “tolerance and humanity.”
The government of Chancellor Scholz, under pressure, promised on Sunday a quick and thorough investigation to clarify possible errors by the authorities in preventing the attack.
What happened in Germany?
The suspect drove a BMW SUV into a crowd at a Christmas market on Friday.
Saudi Arabia had asked Berlin to extradite Taleb Jawad al Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi psychiatrist, after having warned several times that he could “be dangerous,” a source close to the government in Riyadh told AFP on Monday.
The suspect had lived in Germany since 2006 and had refugee status.
In their numerous social media posts they expressed views hostile to Islam, their anger at German immigration officials, and their support for far-right conspiracy theories about an “Islamization” of Europe.
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