German politicians react shocked to a stabbing on Wednesday in a park in the German town of Aschaffenburg. A 41-year-old man and a 2-year-old child were killed. “A horrible act of violence,” Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told journalists during a visit to the park on Wednesday evening.
The suspect is a 28-year-old Afghan with a background of psychological problems, who is said to have exhibited violent behavior before. He attacked a group of children at a daycare with a kitchen knife. The man who died was a passer-by who tried to protect the children. State Minister Herrmann praised his courage.
According to Herrmann, the suspect came to Germany from Afghanistan in 2022 and then applied for asylum. Later he would have indicated that he wanted to return, but he did not do so. His motive for the stabbing is still unclear. There are currently no indications of radical Islamic motivations.
Scholz is fed up
National politicians also react with disgust. Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks on social media of “an incomprehensible act of terror” and wonders why the suspect was still in Germany. He believes that the local authorities should do this urgently need to clarifybecause he is tired of the increasing number of incidents involving perpetrators “who have come to Germany to seek protection”.
Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser says she is “deeply shocked” and offers her condolences to the parents of the boy who died. Party leader Alice Weidel of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany also sympathizes with the relatives and victims. She pointed out to X that Bavaria is governed by the Christian Democratic CSU, which did not deport the perpetrator, despite the fact that he was known to the police. “Immediately remigration,” she writes.
An attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg late last year left five people dead and more than two hundred people injured. The perpetrator of that attack was originally from Saudi Arabia, which is partly why the theme of migration was already high on the agenda in Germany in the run-up to the February 23 elections.