Will the Christmas market attack further divide Germans over immigration?
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 expressed sadness for those affected and promised to beef up security.
In a communication shared with Al Jazeera, Green Party leader Robert Habeck said he wanted the city to have “comfort, strength and confidence. ” Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the incident a “terrible and senseless” act.
Nicole Anger, an MP and co-chair of the Die Linke (Left) party in Magdeburg, said the city remained calm and other people remained 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 rising.
Parallel to the vigils, more than 2,000 far-right supporters holding signs and chanting anti-immigration slogans gathered in the city on Saturday.
Other rallies would be for Monday.
Anger, who was born and raised in Magdeburg, said the atmosphere reminded him of the mid-1990s, when a man was killed after far-right agitators chased a black men’s organization through the city in what is now It is known as Himmelfahrtskrawalle, or the Ascension of Magdeburg. Unrest.
“Right now, young people and other people with an immigrant background are afraid of ending up on the street,” he said.
The attack took place as the Germans were preparing to close a stormy political year.
After the collapse of the Scholz-led coalition in November, the chancellor held a vote of confidence in mid-December, triggering early elections.
Germans will go to the polls on February 23.
Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to gain political ground following its successes in this year’s regional elections.
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 reported a sense of concern and worry, saying that a blame game over the Magdeburg attack may simply distract from the main issues facing the German electorate.
“We still have to be very careful about the genuine motives of the attacker. But what is evident is that if there is an extremist force in the political discourse that is not only Islamophobic but also phobic towards all foreigners, if it expresses itself so strongly, as the AfD always does, it resonates,” said Justus von Daniels, editor-in-chief of the German publication Correctiv, which announced in January a meeting between the AfD and neo-Nazi activists to discuss a “master plan” for the expulsion of immigrants.
He added that it will be revealing how Germany acts lately in terms of strengthening security.
In the run-up to the elections, political parties deserve to avoid getting carried away by the AfD’s anti-immigration rhetoric and focus on the problems facing 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 has described himself as a former Muslim activist on social media. His messages showed contempt for Islam and right-wing ideologies. He said he sent text messages to women fleeing Saudi Arabia, but a Correctiv journalist who was in contact with him disputed this claim and reported that several women blocked him because he was “behaving in a problematic manner. ” Array Some said they felt sexually harassed through it.
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, a professor of Islamophobia and political violence at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said the suspect appears to have “a bit of admiration for populist ethnonationalist ideals. “
“I think it has the effect of more broadly aligning this specific writer’s motivations with far-right practices and ideologies, especially when it comes to women’s healing,” she 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 evidently expressed his admiration for right-wing European leaders, such as Dutch politician Geert Wilders, on social media. Since the attack, the right in Germany and across Europe has been quick to weaponize the attack to publicize its anti-immigrant agenda, observers say.
Jorinde Schulz, activist and member of the left-wing party, stated that “the right can mobilize almost without obstacles. “
“For them, this attack is a springboard to gain more support, which is even more worrying because they are the ones who will attack other people of color in the streets and intimidate political activists. “
On Sunday, police in Bremerhaven, a port town in northern Gerguyy, arrested a man who turned to TikTok to threaten violence. The man allegedly warned that he would stab an Arab-looking man in the city on Christmas Day, Gerguy news agency reported, dpa.