German runner vows to control borders forever after knife attack

The opposition leader expected to lead Germany following next month’s election has promised sweeping changes to border and asylum laws after a group of children were fatally knifed in Bavaria.

Friedrich Merz has promised to close Germany’s borders to all illegal immigrants, including those entitled to protection.

A two-year-old Moroccan boy and a 41-year-old man died in Wednesday’s incident in Aschaffenburg, and several others were injured.

An Afghan man, 28, was to appear in court on Thursday accused of murder and grievous bodily harm.

Wednesday’s stabbing in Aschaffenburg is the latest in a series of violent and deadly attacks involving suspected asylum seekers in Germany.

Within hours, the stabbing caused a strong outcry for Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Merz, the leader of the center-right opposition party.

Scholz promised swift action and called it an “act of terror” – although officials have not yet said they believe there was terrorist intent.

Merz, whose Christian Democrats are leading in the polls ahead of the February 23 general election, 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 is linked to three previous acts of violence, according to Bavarian officials. He had agreed to leave Germany last month but was still receiving psychiatric treatment and living in an asylum.

An investigating judge will decide whether he should be remanded in custody or temporarily placed in a mental hospital.

Merz said on his first day as chancellor he would order the Interior Ministry to permanently control Germany’s borders.

“We see before us the ruins of 10 years of bad asylum and immigration policy in Germany,” he said. “We’ve reached the limit.”

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

Criticizing EU laws as “ineffective as they appear to be”, he said Germany must now “exercise its right to 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 rules as a “resort” measure, but not officially.

Merz also said it is time to greatly increase the number of places available for pre-deportation detention.

Merz’s promise to close borders on illegal immigration on his first day as chancellor in Berlin has a Trumpian ring to it.

The president of the United States has done it he was pushed through a series of orders and administrative actions to address illegal immigration since he re-entered the White House this week.

In Germany, the centre-left chancellor and Merz know that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been polling second, has made immigration an issue.

AfD leader Alice Weidel has called for a vote in the German parliament next week on closing Germany’s borders and turning back illegal immigrants. “The knife scare in Aschaffenburg must have consequences now,” he said on social media.

Some critics will argue that Scholz and Merz’s move to take a hard line now comes too late. Some will argue that the right dynamics of the mainstream parties would simply support the AfD’s arguments.

In any case, German politics does not boil down to a set of one-day rules like the president’s style, given the need to form coalitions with other parties.

The leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner, said that Merz will not be able to introduce such changes if he cooperates with the Social Democrats or the Green party.

Nancy Faeser, the interior minister and her party colleague Olaf Scholz, suggested that “some people are now making false arguments in the election campaign”.

“I would clearly warn against abusing such an evil act of nationalism, which only benefits right-wing supporters with their contempt for humanity,” he said.

A 41-year-old man, who was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday, has been commended, and it is clear that he helped the kindergarten group and saved the lives of other children.

Another two-year-old child from Syria received knife wounds to the neck.

A 72-year-old man was seriously stabbed and a kindergarten teacher also suffered a broken arm.