Attack in Germany: the Scholz government under pressure

The German government must face criticism after the bloody car-ramming attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market, around a question: should the alleged Saudi perpetrator not have been stopped much earlier?

“Why?” asks the daily Bild, Germany's most read, in an editorial on Sunday.

Why was the 50-year-old doctor suspected of having caused the death of 5 people, and of having injured more than 200 others on Friday evening, not put out of action when for years he multiplied the worrying signals in Germany? Presented to a judge on Saturday evening, he was placed in pre-trial detention.

Conspiratorial and virulent speeches

According to the magazine Der Spiegel, the Saudi secret services sent a warning a year ago to their German BND correspondents about Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen. At issue: one of his tweets in which he threatened Germany with a “price” to pay for its treatment of Saudi refugees.

The warning remained a dead letter, while the man increasingly locked himself into conspiratorial and virulent speeches.

He constantly accused Germany of not sufficiently protecting Saudis fleeing their country to escape a rigorous Islam, and on the other hand of welcoming radical Muslims from other countries with open arms.

Last August, he wrote again on his X account: “Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slitting the throats of German citizens? I have been looking for this peaceful path since January 2019 and I have not found it.”

In 2013 he was fined in Rostock for “disturbing public order” and “threats to commit crimes”.

“Ultra-right conspiracy theorist psychopath”

Even in the Saudi community exiled in Germany, the man frightened: Mina Ahadi, president of the Central Council of Former Muslims, described him as an “ultra-right conspiracy-minded psychopath” who hated all those who did not share his hatred.

The German police, after a “risk” assessment last year, judged that he did not present “particular danger”, Die Welt reported on Sunday.

The day before the attack, the Saudi psychiatrist ignored a court summons to Berlin, where he was being prosecuted for a scandal in a police station refusing to register his complaint, according to German media.

“The incompetence of the administration, which allowed the horror of Magdeburg, leaves one speechless,” criticized the leader of the German far right in view of the next legislative elections at the end of February, Alice Weidel.

His movement, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), demanded the holding of an extraordinary session of the Chamber of Deputies on the “catastrophic” security situation in the country.

Guard mixes ignored

Same speech from the other anti-system party, radical left this time, BSW, whose leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, demands explanations after “so many warnings were ignored”.

Throughout the weekend, German politicians marched to the scene of the tragedy in Magdeburg, where four women, aged 45 to 75, and a 9-year-old boy were killed, and more than 200 people injured on Friday evening.

The French Minister Delegate in charge of Europe, Benjamin Haddad, is going to Magdeburg on Sunday afternoon “to express France's support for the German people”.

The alleged perpetrator, boarding a powerful BMW vehicle, mowed down the crowd while speeding through the Christmas market. The toll could rise further as around forty people are seriously injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz calls on the Germans to “stick together”, but the Magdeburg attack fuels criticism in the middle of the electoral campaign.

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