BERLIN: Germany's president said on Tuesday that a deadly car-ramming attack on a Christmas market had cast a "dark shadow" over this year's celebrations but urged the nation not to be driven apart by extremists. In his traditional Christmas address, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sought to issue a message of healing four days after the brutal attack in the eastern city of Magdeburg killed five people and left over 200 wounded. Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, was arrested on Friday at the scene of the attack in which a rented SUV ploughed at high speed through the crowd of revellers, bringing death and chaos to the festive event. "A dark shadow hangs over this Christmas," said the head of state, pointing to the "pain, horror and bewilderment over what happened in Magdeburg just a few days before Christmas". He made a call for national unity as a debate about security and immigration is flaring again: "Hatred and violence must not have the final word. Let's not allow ourselves to be driven apart. Let's stand together." In a post on X, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also recognised that Germany was living through "rough times" but added: "We are a community with a shared future and we are strong".
The leaders' words came a day after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held what it called a memorial rally for the victims in Magdeburg, where one speaker demanded that Germany "must close the borders". Nearby an anti-extremist initiative was held under the motto "Don't Give Hate a Chance". Steinmeier recognised that there was a "great deal of dissatisfaction about politics" in Germany but insisted that "our democracy is and remains strong".
The attacker's motive still remains unclear, days after Germany's deadliest attack in years. He had in many online posts voiced views, anger at German authorities and support for far-right conspiracy narratives of Europe. News outlet Der Spiegel reported he wrote on social media platform X in May that he expected to die "this year" and investigators found his will in the BMW used in the attack in which he stated that everything he owned was to go to the German Red Cross.
The attack has fuelled an already bitter debate on migration and security in Germany, two months before national elections and with the AfD riding high in opinion polls. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned the far-right party, which has enjoyed a string of recent local election successes, against seeking to gain politically from the attack. "Any attempt to exploit such a terrible act and to abuse the suffering of the victims is repulsive," she told the Funke media group. The Magdeburg event had been shielded by barricades, but the attacker managed to exploit a five-metre gap when he steered the car into the site and then raced into the unsuspecting crowd. Steinmeier offered his condolences to relatives of those injured and killed "in such a terrible way" -- when the attack killed a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 45 to 75. "You are not alone in your pain," he told the hundreds of affected families. "The people throughout our country feel for you and mourn with you." — AFP
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