From the Annecy attack to Magdeburg: the left and its attempt at recovery

This Friday, December 20, around 8 p.m., a ram car rushes into the crowd gathered around a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. The results show five deaths, including a 9-year-old child, and more than 200 people are injured, including 41 seriously. The suspect: a 50-year-old refugee, Saudi and psychiatrist, according to initial information. But above all, it would be “ Islamophobic », indicated the German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser. Information that the media and political figures were quick to pick up to counter anti-immigration speeches.

Exploitation by the left, again and again…

A few weeks before the early German legislative elections which will be held in February, the question of “ political recovery » of the event is at the center of the debates. In order to defuse any “ exploitation » by the far right of the suspect's foreign profile, the positions ” anti-Islam » which he claimed on his social networks have been brandished, since Friday, by the left to justify his act. Identified as Taleb Jawad Al-Abdulmohsen, he is now nicknamed, in newspaper headlines, the “ Islamophobic suspect ”, and would also be close to “ far-right conspiracy stories ”, according to an article in Monde.

Suspicions regarding his support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party focus on his political opinions displayed en masse on his social networks. Among these publications, tweets in which he supports the idea of ​​Islamization of Europe, expresses his hostility towards the Muslim religion from which he comes, and criticizes the permissiveness of elected officials towards radical Islam in Germany. But if a large part of its posts criticize the “ racism » of which Saudi refugees are victims in Germany, and for which he vehemently blames the government, it is above all his hatred of Islam which has attracted media attention. Be careful, one recovery can hide another!

Annecy: a Christian attack not so Christian after all

It recalls, moreover, that which was the subject of the Annecy terrorist, who attacked young children on a playground, “ in the name of Jesus Christ », June 8, 2023. For weeks, the Syrian attacker had been presented as being an Eastern Christian who had fled his country because of his religious affiliation. A profile which seemed to have “reassured” part of the left, like Liberation for whom the extreme right [s’accrochait] to the idea that the attacker [n’était] not a Christian “. But this identity turned out to be, in reality, a cover, as Henri d'Anselme (the hero with the backpack) explained on December 18 on the Legend podcast.

According to the terrorist's file, since interned in a psychiatric cell, the Christian religion was the reason he invoked to request the right to asylum, as it is sometimes advised to do to migrants in order to more easily win their case. . But the profile of the attacker turned out to be quite different, since he was a man who had joined the ranks of Daesh after deserting Bashar al-Assad's army.

Political recovery, a double standard?

While it remains to be determined the precise motivations of the Magdeburg attacker, one thing is clear: when the right should especially not demonstrate against mass immigration, in these times when ” the time is still for contemplation », the left can claim the recovery it wants. It is even encouraged by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called for “ stand against hatred », targeting the AfD rally this Saturday at the scene of the tragedy.