Germany debates migration and motives after deadly Christmas market attack

Magdeburg has been enveloped in grief since an attack that killed a nine-year-old boy and four women at a Christmas market on Friday evening.

About 200 people were also injured when a man rammed a car into the busy market in the eastern German city.

The suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year old Saudi-born psychiatrist who has lived in Germany since 2006, faces accusations of murder and attempted murder.

Political parties across the spectrum have expressed sorrow for the victims and promised to step up security.

In a statement shared with Al Jazeera, Greens party leader Robert Habeck said he wished the city “comfort, strength and confidence”. Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the incident a “terrible and insane” act.

Nicole Anger, a lawmaker and co-chairwoman of Die Linke (The Left) party in Magdeburg, said the city remains quiet and people are still stunned.

“There are candlelight vigils, services and just a lot of moments of people standing together in solidarity. The salesmen from the Christmas market, which is closed for the rest of the year, have been giving away fruits and vegetables for free,” she told Al Jazeera.

But while many are united in grief, tensions are growing.

Alongside vigils, more than 2,000 far-right supporters bearing banners and chanting slogans against migration gathered in the city on Saturday.

Further rallies are reportedly planned for Monday.

Anger, who was born and raised in Magdeburg, said the atmosphere reminded her of the mid-1990s when one man was killed after far-right agitators chased a group of Black men through the city in what has come to be known as Himmelfahrtskrawalle, or the Magdeburg Ascension Day riots.

“At the moment, children and people with a migration background are scared to be out on the streets,” she said.

The attack took place as Germans prepared to close off a heated political year.

After the coalition led by Scholz collapsed in November, the chancellor then lost a confidence vote in mid-December, triggering snap elections.

Germans will head to the polls on February 23.

Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to gain political ground after successes in state elections this year.

The day before the attack, US billionaire Elon Musk stirred controversy by posting on the X social media platform he owns: “Only the AfD can save Germany.”

Observers have described a sense of fear and concern, saying a blame game over the Magdeburg attack could distract from the main issues facing the German electorate.

“We still have to be very cautious about what the attacker’s real motives were. But what is obvious is that if there is an extremist force in the political discourse which is actually not only Islamophobic but generally phobic against any foreigners, if this is articulated in this strong way as the AfD is constantly doing, it trickles down,” said Justus von Daniels, editor of the German publication Correctiv, which in January broke the news of a meeting between the AfD and neo-Nazi activists to discuss a migrant deportation “master plan”.

He said how Germany acts now in terms of increasing security will be telling.

In the run-up to the elections, political parties should avoid playing into the hands of the AfD’s antimigration narrative and focus on issues affecting the electorate, von Daniels said.

“The economy is a big part of this election, and a case like Magdeburg shifts the public discourse to migration issues. If the AfD will try to push the migration issue further, I worry that the other political parties will respond to that, and this is not healthy to the political debate.”

The suspect and his possible motives have puzzled authorities and the public.

Al-Abdulmohsen described himself as an ex-Muslim activist on social media. His posts showed disdain for Islam and support for right-wing ideologies. He said he supported women fleeing Saudi Arabia, but a journalist at Correctiv who was in contact with him has challenged that claim, reporting that several women blocked him because he was “behaving problematically”. Some alleged they felt sexually harassed by him.

Saudi Arabia said it had warned Germany about the doctor in November 2023. Germany has acknowledged receiving the tip but ultimately decided al-Abdulmohsen did not appear to be a threat at that time.

Tahir Abbas, an associate professor in Islamophobia and political violence at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said the suspect seems to have become “a bit of a fanboy of populist ethno-nationalist ideals”.

“What I think this does is align this particular perpetrator’s motivations more broadly with far-right practices and ideologies, including in relation to the treatment of women,” he said.

“The far right is so hypernormalised across Europe and North America at the moment that there are tremendous challenges that have emerged and will continue to emerge, particularly as President Donald Trump takes the helm in the US again.”

The suspect made clear on social media his admiration for Europe’s hard-right leaders, such as the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Since the attack, the far right in Germany and across Europe has been quick to weaponise the attack to promote their antimigrant agenda, observers said.

Jorinde Schulz, an activist and member of The Left party, said the “extreme right is allowed to mobilise almost unhindered”.

“For them, this attack is a stepping stone to gain more support, which is all the more disturbing since they are the ones who are going to attack people of colour in the street and intimidate political activists.”

On Sunday, police in Bremerhaven, a port city in northern Germany, detained a man who took to TikTok to threaten violence. The man is alleged to have warned he would stab any person of Arabic appearance in the city on Christmas Day, the German news agency dpa reported.

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