Footage of a police officer’s murder sparked an emotional debate in Germany about migration and radical Islamism just days before European Parliament elections, according to Politico.
An officer identified as 29-year-old Rouven L. died on Sunday after being stabbed in the back of the head. A 25-year-old man from Afghanistan, who arrived in Germany in 2014, allegedly inflicted the wound.
The national-oriented Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has struggled recently with a string of scandals leading to its drop in the polls. However, broader concerns about migration could give the party a good foothold.
The AfD’s national co-leaders, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, called for “secure borders and a fortress Europe.” They also urged an end to immigration and the “repatriation” of Afghan migrants already in the country.
Our thoughts are with all civil servants who have to put their lives in danger every day because of a misguided migration and security policy.
Polls show that many Germans remain deeply dissatisfied with immigration and want to limit the number of asylum seekers allowed into the country. In a recent poll conducted for German public television, respondents named refugee, asylum, and integration policies as the most pressing issue the European Union faced. Meanwhile, 41 per cent named it as one of the two main challenges the bloc was facing.
In a separate poll, 64 per cent of Germans stated that they considered migration to be relatively disadvantageous to society. At the same time, only 27 per cent see it as a net benefit.
AfD politicians are keen to draw the public’s attention to the growing immigration problem. Björn Höcke stated:
How many of us still have to die before we find the courage to live our lives?
Details of attack
The murder of a police officer took place on Friday in a town square in the southwestern German city of Mannheim. An anti-Islam activist group calling itself the Citizens’ Movement Pax Europa was preparing to hold a rally there. A suspect attacked people gathered in the square with a knife, injuring several people, including Michael Stürzenberger, the founder of the anti-Islam group.
After police arrived on the scene, the suspect allegedly approached from behind an officer kneeling over another man and stabbed him. Another police officer then shot the suspect, who was then hospitalised. Authorities stated that the suspect was originally from Afghanistan and lived with his wife and two children in Heppenheim, Hesse. Police have not clarified the motive for the attack yet.
Politicians condemned the attack and warned of the dangers of extremism. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X on Monday:
The police officer who was killed in Mannheim was defending the right of all of us to express our own opinions. If extremists want to violently restrict these rights, they must know: We are their toughest opponents.
