Germany’s president yesterday said that a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market had cast a “dark shadow” over this year’s celebrations, but urged the nation not to be driven apart by extremists.
In his traditional Christmas address, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sought to issue a message of healing four days after the brutal attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg killed five people and wounded more than 200.
“A dark shadow hangs over this Christmas,” he said, pointing to the “pain, horror and bewilderment over what happened in Magdeburg just a few days before Christmas.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
He made a call for national unity as a debate about security and immigration is flaring again.
“Hatred and violence must not have the final word. Let’s not allow ourselves to be driven apart. Let’s stand together,” he said.
His words came a day after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held what it called a memorial rally for the victims in Magdeburg, where one speaker demanded that Germany “close the borders.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Nearby an anti-extremist initiative was held under the motto “Don’t Give Hate a Chance.”
Steinmeier recognized that there was a “great deal of dissatisfaction about politics” in Germany, but insisted that “our democracy is and remains strong.”
A Saudi Arabian doctor, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was arrested on Friday at the scene of the attack in which a rented sport utility vehicle ploughed at high speed through the crowd of revelers.
His motive remains unclear, days after Germany’s deadliest attack in years.
Abdulmohsen has in his many online posts voiced strongly anti-Islam views, anger at German authorities and support for far-right conspiracy narratives on the “Islamization” of Europe.
Der Spiegel reported that he wrote on X in May that he expected to die “this year” and was seeking “justice” at any cost.
Investigators found his will in the BMW that he used in the attack, but it contained no political messages, saying only that he wanted everything he owned donated to the German Red Cross.
Die Welt daily, citing unnamed security sources, said that Abdulmohsen had been treated for a mental illness in the past, although this was not immediately confirmed by authorities.
The attack has fueled an already bitter debate on migration and security in Germany, two months before national elections and with the far-right AfD party riding high in opinion polls. The government is facing mounting questions about possible errors and missed warnings about Abdulmohsen.
Saudi Arabia said it had repeatedly warned Germany about its citizen, who came to Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later.
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