‘Insane’ Magdeburg Christmas market attack turns up heat on Germany’s politicians

The German government is reeling from an attack on a Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg that saw at least five people killed when a car apparently driven by an “Islamophobic” Saudi Arabian refugee plowed into Friday evening crowds.

With the country in the throes of an election campaign dominated by the issues of migration and Germany’s failing economy, the tragedy, and the possible motivation behind it, triggered a stream of claims from politicians on all sides as the untypical nature of the attack started to emerge.

Reports suggested the German authorities had been warned about the suspected attacker. He allegedly supports the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is currently in second place in opinion polls.

“Yesterday’s horrific act in Magdeburg does not fit the pattern we have seen so far,” said Friedrich Merz, leader of center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and on course to become Germany’s next chancellor. “This obliges us politicians to pause for a moment.”

While the motive of the attack remains unclear and the background of the alleged suspect confounds initial theories that it was committed by an Islamic terrorist, the tragedy still puts the spotlight on Germany’s attitude to immigration and border control.

‘Terrible, insane act’

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose center-left party looks set to lose power in February, described the attack as a “terrible, insane act” and said “those who want to sow hatred” wouldn’t win.

But Scholz faces important questions over the next few days about what was known of the suspect, his identity was confirmed by prosecutors as Taleb Al Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old man. While prosecutors gave almost no details about the suspect, German media said Abdulmohsen is a Saudi Arabian psychiatrist who moved to Germany in 2006.

The Magdeburg chief prosecutor, Horst Walter Nopens, did indicate a Saudi connection.

“It looks like the background to the crime could have been … dissatisfaction with the treatment of Saudi Arabian refugees in Germany,” Nopens told a press conference on Saturday. “But what is deeper behind this is the subject of the investigation,” he said. 

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the authorities can “say with certainty that the perpetrator was obviously Islamophobic.” 

The chief prosecutor said the suspect is in police custody and has made a statement about the motive for the crime, but he declined to give any details about that statement. The investigators “do not yet know whether it was a terrorist attack,” Nopens said.

Late Saturday, a Magdeburg court approved pretrial detention for the suspect, the police said.

“The judge ordered pretrial detention for five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm,” the police said in a statement early Sunday.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack Friday evening, right-wing parties seized on reports that the driver was a man from Saudi Arabia. The incident took place almost eight years to the day after a terrorist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.

Migration has become a huge issue in Germany, which took in large numbers of refugees from Syria under former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015. With external commentators from Elon Musk, an adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, to Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, already commenting on Friday’s tragedy, it has the potential to steer the debate even further in that direction.

Several German media outlets identified the alleged attacker before prosecutors confirmed his name. WELT, a sister publication of POLITICO in the Axel Springer group, said the Saudi Arabian was granted refugee status in 2016. 

‘Using dirty tricks’

German media also reported that the alleged attacker was an AfD supporter. In 2019 interviews with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankurter Rundschau, Abdulmohsen described his online anti-Islam advocacy and initiatives to help Saudis apply for asylum. “I am the most aggressive critic of Islam in history. If you don’t believe me, ask the Arabs,” he said.

On his proported X account, Abdulmohsen claimed that “Germany wants to islamize Europe” and accused German police of “using dirty tactics against me and other critics of Islam … to destroy our anti-Islam activism.”

The AfD, along with other far-right European parties, was quick to jump on reports that the alleged perpetrator was an immigrant. Alice Weidel, chair of the AfD, pointedly asked “When will this madness end?” while expressing her condolences for the victims of the attack.

At least five people were killed, including a child, according to the premier of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff, of the CDU.  Some 200 others were injured in the attack, the prosecutors said.

Germany’s election, triggered by the collapse of a three-party coalition led by Scholz, is scheduled for Feb. 23.

“There is no more peaceful and friendly place than a Christmas market,” Scholz said on Saturday. “Now it is important that … we don’t let those who want to sow hatred get away with it, but that we also don’t let the perpetrators go unprosecuted and that we take action with the full force of the law,” he said.

The CDU’s Merz has outlined a conservative vision for how he will govern, saying he will sharply reduce the number of asylum-seekers being allowed to settle in Germany. 

In recent polls by the institute Forschergruppe Wahlen on the main concerns of German voters, the economic crisis overtook migration.

This could swing back after the attack, as it did following a killing at a festival this summer in Solingen in western Germany. Nevertheless, the leading parties have already adopted a tougher stance on migration in their election manifestos. The conservative CDU, like the AfD, wants to introduce border controls for Germany and make it easier to deport refugees.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck described the attack as “terrible news” in a place “where people wanted to spend the Advent season in peace and community.” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed shock at the incident, and sent condolences to the victims and their families.

Thursday marked the eighth anniversary of the attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz Christmas market when Islamist Anis Amri killed 12 people with a truck. Another victim later died from his injuries.

This article has been updated.