Solingen knife attack used in political campaigns ahead of votepublished at 10:41 British Summer Time
Damien McGuinness
Reporting from Berlin
Keir Starmer has
expressed his condolences to the German people for Friday’s stabbing in
Solingen, in which three people died.
The tragedy shocked Germany, but is also
creating a political earthquake.
On Sunday, two large eastern German states hold
key regional elections.
And at rallies, the
anti-immigration far-right AfD, which was already predicted to do well before the
attack, is directly blaming Olaf Scholz’s government for the tragedy.
The
suspect is an asylum seeker who was supposed to be deported.
Within hours of
the killing, AfD leaders were using the word Solingen in anti-refugee campaign
rhetoric on social media.
For most voters, this
will look like the cynical abuse of a tragedy to score political points.
But mainstream parties are so terrified that the AfD may win the most votes on Sunday, they have dramatically escalated the tough talk on migration.
Conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz says he is ready to work with the
government, and has announced concrete proposals.
But some ideas, such as
closing all borders to asylum seekers, are unworkable, others are legally
questionable.
He knows this. His real aim is to create rifts within the
chancellor’s already argumentative coalition.
The conservative leader is
effectively launching his election campaign, based on a clamp-down on
migration, for next year’s national parliamentary vote.