Political debate over stricter gun laws and immigration in the Germany glows - after the terrorist attack in Solingen in which three people were killed with a knife, and several others were wounded.
"Enough is enough," said Friedrich Mertz, president of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), after the murder in Sollingen. Mertz usually has a rather cool relationship with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), but now the head of the strongest opposition party in the Bundestag directly addressed the head of government: "I call on you to work together with us so that we can quickly and without further delay take decisions consistently aimed at preventing further terrorist attacks like the one that happened last Friday in our country".
Mertz proposed to meet with the chancellor in the next few days, and as reported by the media, that meeting should take place "as early as this week."
This Monday, the chancellor, together with representatives of the government of North Rhine-Westphalia, laid flowers at the site of the attack. "It was terrorism, terrorism against all of us," said Scholz, who also announced the tightening of gun laws. This applies especially to knives, he emphasized, but also to "many other things that need to be regulated."
With regard to the possible tightening of the Asylum Act, Scholz was somewhat more reserved. He referred to the recent political decisions on increasing the number of deportations and stressed that the implementation of those decisions must be consistent.
The problem with deportations to Syria and Afghanistan
Some of the measures proposed by the leader of the opposition CDU Merz are drastic: "Allow deportations to Syria and Afghanistan, and no longer accept new refugees from those countries." Anyone who has refugee status in Germany, and travels to his home country, immediately loses all residence status in Germany."
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Feser from the ranks of the Chancellor's Social Democrats (SPD) has been considering the possibility of deportations to Syria or Afghanistan for some time. However, as she repeatedly pointed out, it is not so easy: there are, for example, no diplomatic ties with the Taliban who rule Afghanistan. A ban on deportations to Afghanistan has been in place in Germany since radical Islamists came to power in September 2021.
The three parties in power, the SPD, the Greens and the Liberals (FDP), would rather agree to Mertz's other demands. For example: "Constant control of the German border, consistent border stops and the return of the application of the Dublin regulations." Therefore, no one who enters from a safe third country has the right to stay in Germany."
After the knife attack in Solingen, the 26-year-old perpetrator from Syria surrendered to the police. According to media reports, the man entered the European Union through Bulgaria and, according to the Dublin regulations, he should have applied for asylum there. After such a request was rejected in Germany in 2023, he was supposed to be deported back to Bulgaria, but that did not happen, because he went into hiding.
On Sunday afternoon, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) issued an arrest warrant for the suspect. That highest German court has jurisdiction, because the act is classified as a terrorist act.
Further expansion of border controls?
Interior Minister Fezer has repeatedly complained that many EU countries, such as Bulgaria and Romania, allow asylum seekers who enter the EU for the first time to simply travel on to Germany.
The German federal police currently carry out spot checks at several borders, for example with Poland, the Czech Republic or Austria. It should end in December, but just a few days ago, the ministry announced the possibility of extending border controls for at least six months.
Fezer is also aware that the federal police, which is responsible for border controls, urgently needs more officers - currently there are 56.000 of them. However, the state can hardly afford that increase, given the deficit in the budget.
Habek calls for bans - the effectiveness of which he doubts
The fact that the effective fight against Islamist crime in Germany costs a lot is indicated by the Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck from the ranks of the Greens. He also said from his home in Flensburg on the German-Danish border: "We don't know if the terrible act in Sollingen could have been prevented by stricter laws," the Minister of Economy wrote on Platform X.
At the same time, he advocated for more zones in which the carrying of weapons would be prohibited, as well as for stricter gun laws: "Knives and cold weapons are not needed by anyone in Germany in public places." We are no longer living in the Middle Ages".
Carrying knives and other weapons in public places in Germany has been prohibited since the Arms Act came into force in 1973. The ruling FDP spoke out against the tightening of that law. Their federal justice minister Marko Bushman announced: "We will discuss in the federal government how we can continue to improve the fight against this type of crime."
The Association of German Criminal Police Officers also announced, whose president, Dirk Peglow, assessed the following: "Neither knife-free zones nor a general knife-carrying ban would stop the perpetrator."
At the same time, Peglow said police should be allowed to search for knives without any particular reason. He believes that a debate on the general prohibition of carrying knives in public is necessary - with the necessary exceptions.
Solingen - a week before important elections in the east
The discussion after the murder in Sollingen has intensified to such an extent because the extremely important elections in the East German states of Thuringia and Saxony are just a week away. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has between 30 and 34 percent of support there and could become the strongest political force in both provinces. The Sara Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a party founded at the beginning of the year, headed by a former politician from the Left Party, also has a strong rating, according to polls. Both parties call for a radical tightening of the asylum and immigration policy.
Among other things, that is why the leader of the opposition CDU, Friedrich Mertz, suggests to the chancellor that, if he is not already able to impose a stricter policy towards foreigners in his own ranks, then use a rarely used instrument at his disposal: "Use your powers to set political guidelines and allow Bundestag to freely vote on the necessary laws. All those from the ranks of the Greens and the FDP, or from your own ranks, who are not for it, will remain in the minority."
The power to set policy gives the chancellor the right, in the event of a dispute, to override the opinions of his ministers on all matters and to determine the course of government. Mertz announces that his party, the CDU, will agree to a corresponding legislative proposal.
