German leader vows permanent border controls after knife attack

The conservative opposition leader, who is tipped to lead Germany after next month’s election, has promised major changes to border and asylum rules after a group of children were targeted in a deadly knife attack in Bavaria.

Friedrich Merz has effectively promised to close Germany’s borders to all illegal migrants, including those eligible for protection.

A two-year-old boy of Moroccan origin and a 41-year-old man were killed in an attack on Wednesday in Aschaffenburg, and several people were injured.

The 28-year-old Afghan man was due to appear in court on Thursday on charges of murder and grievous bodily harm.

Wednesday’s stabbing in Aschaffenburg is the latest in a string of violent, fatal attacks involving suspects who have sought asylum in Germany.

Within hours, the stabbings provoked harsh tone from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as Mertz, the leader of the center-right opposition.

Scholz promised swift action and called it a “terrorist act” – although officials have so far not said they believe it was terrorist-motivated.

Merz, whose Christian Democrats are leading in opinion polls ahead of federal elections on February 23, refused to accept that the attacks in Mannheim last May, Solingen in August and Magdeburg last month would be the “new normal”.

The Afghan suspect in yesterday’s attack arrived in Germany in 2022 and was linked to three previous acts of violence, according to Bavarian officials. He agreed to leave Germany last month, but was still receiving psychiatric treatment and living in an asylum.

The investigating judge decides whether to place him in custody or temporarily place him in a psychiatric hospital.

Mertz said that on his first day as chancellor, he would instruct the interior ministry to take over permanent control of Germany’s borders.

“We see before us the ruins of 10 years of misguided asylum and immigration policies in Germany,” he said. “We have reached the limit.”

Under the leadership of his party colleague Angela Merkel, Germany took in more than a million refugees during Europe’s migration crisis in 2015-16.

Criticizing EU asylum rules as “admittedly dysfunctional”, he said Germany must now “execute its right to the primacy of national law”.

Germany has already reintroduced checks at its borders to combat illegal immigration, which is temporarily allowed under the EU’s border-free Schengen zone rules as a “last resort” but not on a permanent basis.

Mertz also said it was time to significantly increase the number of pre-deportation detention facilities.

Mertz’s promise to close the borders to illegal entry on his first day in office in Berlin has a Trumpian sound to it.

The President of the United States has pushed through a flurry of executive orders and actions to fight illegal immigration since he re-entered the White House this week.

In Germany, both the centre-left chancellor and Mertz are aware that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has consistently come second in the polls, has made immigration a major issue.

AfD leader Alisa Weidel has called for a vote in the German parliament next week on closing Germany’s borders and returning illegal migrants. “The knife terror in Aschaffenburg must now have consequences,” she said on social media.

Some critics will argue that Scholz and Mertz took a tougher stance now too late. Others will argue that the mainstream parties’ shift to the right may simply bolster the AfD’s case.

In any case, German politics does not lend itself to a set of presidential-style decrees, given the need to form coalitions with other parties.

The leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner, said that Mertz would not be able to make such changes if he went into a coalition with the Social Democrats or the Green Party.

Nancy Feser, who is both the interior minister and Olaf Scholz’s same-party colleague, suggested that “some people now in campaign mode are making largely fact-free arguments.”

“I can only strongly warn against the misuse of such a terrible act for populism, which only benefits right-wing populists with their contempt for humanity,” she said.

A 41-year-old man killed in a knife attack on Wednesday has been praised for allegedly coming to the aid of a kindergarten group and saving the lives of other children.

Another two-year-old girl of Syrian origin was stabbed in the neck.

A 72-year-old man was seriously stabbed, and a kindergarten teacher broke her arm.