Chancellor Olaf Scholz has vowed that Germany will start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a stabbing spree by an Afghan immigrant last week left a police officer dead and four more people injured.
Friday's savage attack on anti-Islam campaigner Michael Stuerzenberger by Afghan Sulaiman Attae at a rally in Mannheim city centre was live-streamed to YouTube and immediately went viral, prompting mass outrage.
The 25-year-old knifeman, who killed a 29-year-old police officer by plunging a blade into the back of his neck as he tried to intervene, came to Germany in 2014 as an asylum-seeker.
Then on Tuesday, a local council candidate for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was stabbed - again in Mannheim - after confronting someone who tried to tear down an election poster.
Almost one week on from the first attack, Chancellor Scholz today addressed parliament in a speech focused on security, days before European elections in which far-right populists across the continent are expected to make big gains.
'It outrages me when someone who has sought protection here commits the most serious crimes. Such criminals should be deported, even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan,' he said to the applause of legislators.
'Serious criminals and terrorist threats have no place here,' Scholz added. 'In such cases, Germany's security interests outweigh the interests of the perpetrator.'
Sulaiman Ataee, who immigrated to Germany from Afghanistan in 2014 when he was just 14, killed a policeman and stabbed several people in Mannheim last week
The savage blade is clearly seen in this grab from the YouTube live stream as the attack goes to stab the officer in the neck
Chancellor Scholz today addressed parliament in a speech focused on security, days before European elections in which far-right populists across the continent are expected to make big gains
There was a heavy police presence on Mannheim market square this weekend as left and right wing parties came together to voice their views
Mourners were met by anti-immigration campaigners and activists who claim the stabbing would not have happened if Ataee was made to 'remigrate' back to Afghanistan
A piece of paper inscribed with 'Against Terror' lies with candles and flowers left as tributes at the scene in Mannheim's market square
German police officers pay respect to their colleague at a moving commemoration on Sunday
A resident stops to lay tributes to the stabbed police officer, who was killed during the attack at a political rally in Mannheim on Friday
Migration has been one of the major topics during the European election campaign that far-right and mainstream parties have been exploiting to garner votes from Europeans concerned by millions of new arrivals looking for refuge from war, hunger, climate change or just trying to build up a better future for themselves.
Scholz said that 'what happened in Mannheim - the fatal knife attack on a young policeman - is an expression of the misanthropic ideology of radical Islamism'.
'There is only one term for this: terror. Let's declare war on terror,' he said in an uncharacteristically firm speech.
Germany does not currently carry out deportations to Afghanistan or Syria.
The government does not have any diplomatic relations with the Taliban in Kabul, and considers the security situation in Syria too fragile to allow deportations there.
But Scholz claimed that his government was working on solutions to enable the deportation of convicted Afghans to Afghanistan's neighbouring countries.
There have also been discussions in Germany about allowing deportations to Syria again.
He also promised that deportation rules for all others who commit or support terrorism will be toughened as well.
Last week's attack, described as an act of terror by the group that organised the rally in Mannheim, shocked Germany and sparked a wave of calls from fearful citizens to crack down on violent migrants.
Horrific video footage of the incident showed how Attaetackled Stuerzenberger to the ground and violently swung a large blade at him, prompting terrified screams from onlookers.
Police descended on the scene almost immediately, butofficer Rouven L. made a fatal mistake andgave the bloodthirsty attacker a chance to circle behind him.
Ataee stabbed the cop in the neck before being shot by other officers. The policeman later died in hospital, while Ataee remains in a serious condition in hospital.
Local man holding sign Democracy not Islamism at the scene of the stabbing
Pictured: Police officer Rouven L., 29, stabbed to death anti-Islam rally in Germany
Anti-Muslim campaigner Michael Stuerzenberger posted this picture from his hospital bed after he was stabbed by a knifeman at an anti-Islam rally in Germany
View of the crime scene after a knife attack in the city centre in Mannheim, Germany, 31 May 2024
Chaos broke out at the event last week when Attae began violently swinging a large blade at anti-Islam campaigners
Even the left-leaning Green Party is calling for tougher measures against Islamic extremists following the attack, after years of urging Germany to take in more asylum seekers.
Speaking on a talk show on Germany's ARD, leader Ricarda Lang urged decisive action, and acknowledged her party's previous reluctance to confront the issue head-on.
She said: 'Islamism is the enemy of a free society. And it must be treated as such and must be combated, in terms of security policy and society as a whole.
'There can be no excuses, no justifications.'
But it is not clear how fast, if at all, the German government will be able to execute more deportations of criminal foreigners as the country's bureaucracy often slows down any political decisions.
Britta Hasselmann, parliamentary leader of the Greens, who are part of Scholz's governing coalition, questioned how realistic his deportation plans were.
She said it would be difficult to negotiate a deportation agreement with the Taliban or Afghanistan's neighbouring countries.
'It will have to be... examined for which third country it should be attractive to take in terrorists or serious criminals. I am looking forward to seeing what answers we come up with,' she said.
ButFriedrich Merz, opposition leader with the conservative Christian Democrats, said: 'The time of warnings and condemnations, of denials and announcements, that time is now over.
'People expect us to act. They expect decisions.'
Heinrich Koch, a local council candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was stabbed on Tuesday evening in Mannheim, just days after a knife-attack in the same city
The knifeman did not respond to officers' orders and was shot at near point-blank range
Forensic investigators are deployed to the scene in Mannheim market square
Many Germans initially welcomed migrants when more than a million people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq came in 2015-16 after wars and instability in their home countries.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel - who famously declared in 2017 that Islam was 'not the source of terrorism' - opened the country's borders to over a million asylum seekers in 2015.
The move was highly divisive, praised by many liberal commentators as a morally just, humanitarian policy but slammed as dangerous and short-sighted by more conservative mouthpieces.
It also fuelled the growth of anti-immigration groupsto protest what members saw as the failure of government to counter the arrival and influence of Islam in Germany.
Germany's right-wing AfD party has exploited concerns about the newcomers.
In 2017, the party's founder, Alexander Gauland, explicitly vowed to fight an 'invasion of foreigners' and hispopularity grew rapidly - the AfD enjoyed significant success in Germany's state elections in October, winning its biggest-ever share of votes in the powerful state of Hesse and gaining a significant portion of votes in Bavaria.
But in recent months, millions of Germans have gone on to the streets to protest against radical plans by the far-right to deport millions of immigrants, even those with German passports.
And a series of scandals involving the AfD's top candidates in the European elections pointing to their alleged closeness to Russia and China, as well as one of the party's top leaders' repeated use of Nazi slogans, have seen the party slump in recent polls.
Scholz's Social Democrats and other mainstream parties have been trying to depict themselves as tough on migration and radical Islam in hopes that voters will not turn to AfD to tackle issues related to migration.
