In an unusually virulent message, Chancellor Olaf Scholz demanded to know why the alleged Aschaffenburg attacker “was still in Germany”. He is a 28-year-old Afghan who had “been noticed for acts of violence on at least three occasions” and “hospitalized each time for psychiatric treatment,” explained regional Interior Minister Joachim Hermann. .
“I am tired of seeing such acts of violence occur in our country every few weeks,” the chancellor wrote on protection”.
“Clear mental illnesses”
The suspect was arrested near the scene of the attack where he “suddenly and deliberately attacked a child who was part of a kindergarten group,” according to authorities.
“At present, the hypotheses are more in the direction of his obvious mental illnesses”, a search of his accommodation having “revealed no trace of a radical Islamist”, said the regional minister.
Entering Germany at the end of 2022, the suspect requested asylum at the beginning of 2023. The procedure was still in progress when, on December 4, he announced that he wanted to return to Afghanistan and take care of the necessary formalities.
On December 11, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) “indicated the suspension of the asylum application procedure” and “invited him to leave the country”.
Ever-present security questions
The attack with a kitchen knife occurred around 11:45 a.m. local time (10:45 a.m. GMT) in Schöntal Park. Two people died, a 2-year-old boy of Moroccan origin and a 41-year-old passerby “who courageously intervened to protect the other children,” according to Mr. Hermann.
-A 2-year-old child of Syrian origin was stabbed, as was a man, and a teacher broke her arm in panic, detailed a regional official. All three were hospitalized.
“Today is a terrible day for all of Bavaria,” reacted the head of the regional government, the conservative Markus Söder on context of this terrible act of violence. Security issues are very present in the campaign for the February 23 vote.
“Restore order and law”
Reactions were quick to come from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, in second position in the polls. “Remigration now!” wrote co-president Alice Weidel on her X account, a word used by the far right to call for the mass expulsion of foreigners.
“This cannot continue like this. We must restore order and law,” reacted conservative Friedrich Merz, favorite for the chancellery, on the same platform. At the end of December, the Christmas market in Magdeburg (center) was the target of a man, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, who drove a powerful car into the crowd, killing six people and injuring some 300.
The country was also shocked by an attack in Solingen (west) where the alleged perpetrator, a Syrian suspected of links with the Islamic State (IS) organization, stabbed three people to death during local festivities at the end of August
In June, a knife attack in Mannheim (west) left one dead, a young police officer who intervened. The alleged attacker was an Afghan national.
The German government subsequently banned the carrying of bladed weapons in popular gatherings and in long-distance transport.
