Germany's
far-right AfD party calls for major rally following Magdeburg attack
Leader of
AfD party Tino Chrupalla pays tribute to victims outside St. John's Church in
Magdeburg.
By Euronews
with AP
Published on
21/12/2024 - 19:07 GMT+1
Leading
right-wing figures in Europe have also weighed in, criticising the German
authorities for failing to take stronger preventative action.
German
far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is calling for a major
rally following the attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg which left
several people dead and hundreds injured.
At a
memorial site for the victims, AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla called on Interior
Minister Nancy Faeser to take stronger action to ensure the safety of the
German public.
"I am
now demanding answers from the interior minister: What is actually going on
here in this country? What is actually happening in this country? We put up
with it week after week, we put up with attacks, we put up with murders of our
own people. This has to be cleared up now, and these phrases from politicians
that things can't go on like this, which I've heard again today, are actually
upsetting," Chrupalla told the press at the site.
Experts are
now raising concerns that far-right groups could exploit the tragedy to fuel
their anti-immigration rhetoric after police identified the assailant as a
doctor from Saudi Arabia.
"Magdeburg
is in eastern Germany where the support for the AfD is quite high. So, in
elections usually, they have in the region more than one-third of the votes. So
about 30% of the votes in the city, not as much as in the rural areas
around," says Matthias Quent, Professor of Sociology at Magdeburg-Stendal
University of Applied Sciences.
"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," he added.
Leading
right-wing figures in Europe have also weighed in, criticising the German
authorities for failing to take stronger preventative action.
Hungarian
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán drew a direct link between immigration and Friday’s
deadly attack in Germany, telling a news conference on Saturday, "These
phenomena have only existed in Europe since the start of the migration crisis.
So there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western
Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and
terrorist acts."
However,
Quent explains that this particular case becomes more complex as further
details emerge on the background of the attacker.
Investigators
have found that the perpetrator had tried to build connections to far-right
organisations in Germany and the UK, including Germany's far-right AfD party as
well as Tommy Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defence League.
"So
it's a very complicated case we are facing here. And it's not an Islamist
attack. It's quite sure, a kind of anti-Islam. More like far-right attacks than
any other, if you want to search a kind of context on the political
radar," Quent says.
Identified
by local media as 50-year-old Taleb A., a psychiatry and psychotherapy
specialist, authorities said he had been living in Germany for two decades.
Taleb’s
alleged X account is filled with tweets and retweets focusing on anti-Islam
themes and criticism of the religion while sharing congratulatory notes to
Muslims who left the faith.
He also
described himself as a former Muslim.
He was
critical of German authorities, saying they had failed to do enough to combat
the “Islamism of Europe.”
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