The Christmas market attack that killed five people ‘would not have been possible without uncontrolled immigration’, according to the spokeswoman for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Alice Weidel, who is among AfD’s top candidates in Germany’s upcoming snap election, said that the attack in Magdeburg on Friday ‘would not have been possible without uncontrolled immigration’.
She added in a statement on X: ‘The state must protect citizens through a restrictive migration policy and consistent deportations.’
Her comment comes as the AfD and counter-protesters are due to the hit the streets in Magdeburg today after Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen smashed his rented SUV into crowd at the Christmas market there on Friday.
Nine-year-old André Gleißner was killed and officials today revealed that at least 235 people were injured in the horrifying rampage, dozens of whom are still in serious condition.
The carnage has moved the flashpoint issues of security and immigration back to the centre of politics ahead of Germany’s February 23 elections.
Police are still puzzling over why Abdulmohsen attacked the market, with the prosecutor indicating that the medic’s grievance about how Germany was treating Saudi dissident asylum seekers could be a possible motive.
Abdulmohsen – who was arrested beside the battered vehicle – has voiced anti-Islam views, anger at German immigration officials including former Chancellor Angela Merkel and support for far-right narratives on the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe.
Alice Weidel (pictured), who is among AfD’s top candidates in the upcoming snap election, said: ‘The discussion about new security laws must not distract from the fact that Magdeburg would not have been possible without uncontrolled immigration’
Police arrested an ‘unstable’ 50-year-old Saudi doctor identified as Taleb al-Abdulmohsen after he allegedly rammed his SUV into a packed market in the town of Magdeburg
Police officers are pictured as they were arresting the man who rammed his rented SUV into crowds at the Christmas market on Friday
The 50-year-old has been remanded in custody on five counts of murder and several counts of attempted murder as well as causing grievous bodily harm, prosecutors said on Saturday night, but not so far on terrorism-related charges.
The mass-circulation Bild daily wrote that ‘although the background to the terrible attack in Magdeburg has not yet been clarified, it is already clear: There will be a “before” and an “after” in this election campaign.’
It said ‘the attack changes everything’ and will refocus the campaign, so far about Germany’s dire economic situation, on the question of ‘whom people trust to make our homeland safe again’.
The anti-immigration AfD party announced a public ‘memorial’ event and march for the victims from 5pm (4pm GMT) in central Magdeburg today.
Weidel, whose party is polling at around 20 percent but has been shunned as a pariah by all other mainstream parties, is due to attend the event.
An anti-extremist initiative called ‘Don’t Give Hate a Chance’ is set to rally at the same time, near the city’s Johannis church, where thousands of flowers, candles and children’s toys have been placed for the victims of the devastating attack.
‘We are all shocked and angry to see that people want to exploit this cruel act for their own political ends,’ the initiative said in a statement.
‘We must approach each other with openness, care, tolerance and humanity and build bridges instead of erecting walls in our hearts.’
Tempers have been running high over the weekend after it was revealed police were warned about the ‘unstable’ suspect in September last year, but did nothing more than take screenshots of his twisted online threats.
Nine-year-old André Gleißner (pictured) was killed during Friday night’s devastating attack
Al-Abdulmohsen drove his SUV into the packed Christmas market in Magdeburg on Friday night
A man mourns at the memorial site for the victims of the Christmas market attack on Friday
People hold a sign reading ‘Remigration now!’ during a protest after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market, in Magdeburg, Germany December 21
Local outlet Die Welt reported that German state and federal police had carried out a ‘risk assessment’ on Abdulmohsen last year but concluded that he posed ‘no specific danger’.
As German media dug into Abdulmohsen’s past, and investigators gave away little, criticism has rained down from the far-right and far-left parties already bitterly opposed to the government headed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Saudi suspect, psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist Abdulmohsen, had made online death threats against German citizens and had a history of quarrelling with state authorities.
News magazine Der Spiegel, citing security sources, said the Saudi secret service had warned Germany’s spy agency BND a year ago about a tweet in which Abdulmohsen threatened Germany would pay a ‘price’ for its treatment of Saudi refugees.
A source close to the government told AFP on Monday that Saudi Arabia had previously requested extradition for Abdulmohsen.
‘There was (an extradition) request,’ said the source, without giving the reason for the request, adding that Riyadh had warned he ‘could be dangerous’. Saudi Arabia had allegedly warned Germany ‘many times’ about Abdulmohsen.
Abdulmohsen, who portrayed himself as a victim of persecution who had renounced Islam, arrived in Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later, according to German media and a Saudi activist.
The doctor often decried what he said was the Islamisation of Germany.
Al-Abdulmohsen was pictured in a white t-shirt (right) as he arrived at court Saturday night, where he was remanded on charges of murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm
The Saudi suspect, psychiatrist and anti-Islam activist al-Abdulmohsen, had made online death threats against German citizens and had a history of quarrelling with state authorities
Firefighters patrol the scene of the crash on Friday after a car rammed into a massive crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg at around 7pm
People look at flowers and candles left as a tribute near the ‘Alter Markt’ Christmas market, where a man drove a car into the crowd through an emergency exit route on Friday evening, in Magdeburg, Germany, December 22, 2024
In August, Abdulmohsen wrote on social media: ‘Is there a path to justice in Germany without blowing up a German embassy or randomly slaughtering German citizens?… If anyone knows it, please let me know.’
In a post in December last year, he wrote: ‘Germany is the only country – other than Saudi Arabia – that chases female Saudi asylum seekers all over the world to destroy their lives.
‘Revenge will come soon. Even if it costs me my life. I will make the German nation pay the price of the crimes committed by its government against Saudi refugees.’
Political pressure has built on the question of potential missed warnings, and Scholz’s government pledged Sunday to fully investigate whether there were security lapses before the attack. Scholz called the attack ‘terrible’ and ‘insane’.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the heads of Germany’s domestic and foreign intelligence services are due to answer questions at parliamentary committee hearings on December 30, a senior lawmaker told AFP.
Faeser has vowed that ‘no stone will be left unturned’ in shedding light on what information had been available to security services in the past.
She stressed that the attacker did ‘not fit any previous pattern’ because ‘he acted like an Islamist terrorist although ideologically he was clearly an enemy of Islam’.
Faeser also demanded cross-party support to pass laws that would give police greater powers to sift through mountains of social media data and to introduce video surveillance with facial recognition software.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the heads of Germany’s domestic and foreign intelligence services are due to answer questions at parliamentary committee hearings on December 30, a senior lawmaker told AFP
A woman holds a candle as others watch a prayer ceremony outside the Magdeburg Dom church, the day after the devastating attack
Debris outside closed market stalls are seen as a police officers stands on the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 21
Social media accounts falsely alleged Abdulmohsen was an Islamist terrorist shortly after the attack, but the German interior minister later identified Abdulmohsen as being Islamophobic himself.
A harsh critic of Germany’s past welcome too many Muslim migrants, Abdulmohsen wrote on the platform X that he wished ex-chancellor Angela Merkel could be jailed for life or executed.
In 2015, Merkel implemented an ‘open door’ policy, which allow over a million asylum seekers to cross the border into Germany.
The exiled Saudi attacker had praised hard-Right politicians for combating the ‘Islamisation’ of Europe and pledged to take ‘revenge’ over harassment of female refugees.
Abdulmohsen had voiced support for Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson and the AfD, trying to build connections to right-wing organisations in Germany and abroad.
Musk reposted a tweet by Nigel Farage which blamed the Christmas market attack on border policies.
This comes after about 700 hard-right protesters already took to the streets of Magdeburg on Saturday night, with people holding a banner with the word ‘Remigration Now’ and so-called homeland flags.
The protesters, described by German tabloid Bild as right-wing extremists and hooligans, marched through Magdeburg shouting: ‘Anyone who doesn’t love Germany should leave Germany’, ‘Migration kills’ and ‘We must take back our cities, our villages and our homeland’.
Some of the demonstrators reportedly wore masked and were aggressive, resulting in minor scuffles with police.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) has condemned the ‘terrible, insane’ attack and made a call for national unity amid high political tensions as Germany heads towards February 23 elections
Hard-right demonstrators take part in a protest after a car drove into the crowd at the market
People take part in a protest after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market, in Magdeburg
A person holds a sign reading ‘The blood sticks to your hands’ during a protest after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market, in Magdeburg, Germany December 21
A known neo-Nazi called Thorsten Heise reportedly stirred up the crowd by yelling: ‘Deport, deport, deport’ and ‘Resistance’.
The masked protestors who waved anti-immigration posters and shouted chants of ‘migration kills’ were escorted by hundreds of police in full riot gear as they marched through the city.
‘Among the demonstrators were many extremely violent far-right groups from across Germany. Many of them were masked,’ said Oliver Kreuzfeld, an expert on the far-right scene from Endstation Rechts, an initiative against extremism based in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Kreuzfeld observed the demonstration and identified members of violent neo-Nazi groups known for past violent attacks on trains. They also included members of long-established groups, like the Neonazi Kiez in Dortmund.
An expert warned that right-wing groups could attempt to exploit the tragic incident for their own ends.
Matthias Quent, Professor of Sociology at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, told EuroNews: ‘The region in general, eastern Germany, is a hotspot of far-right mobilisations.
‘And we are facing election campaigns until the federal elections in February. And so this is not just a critical time because of Christmas and the trust that gets destroyed by such an attack but, also, regarding questions of disinformation and polarisation and the spread of hate that will and could happen over these kinds of attacks now.’