How will the Munich car crash affect the German election?

A car crashed into a crowd in Munich, Germany’s third largest city, on the morning of the 13th, injuring at least 30 people, including children, many of whom were seriously injured. A suspect was arrested, a 24-year-old man from Afghanistan.

– Deliberate attack

The incident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. on the 13th, when a strike was taking place at the scene. The suspect first drove after the crowd and then rushed into the crowd.

Witnesses said they saw a car rushing into the crowd with two men in the car. The police fired at the vehicle and then shot and arrested one of them.

Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said that many people were seriously injured and even in danger of life. The police believe this was a deliberate attack.

Munich is the capital of Bavaria and is scheduled to host the 61st Munich Security Conference from the 14th to the 16th. Bavaria Interior Minister Joachim Hermann said that law enforcement agencies believe that the car crash has nothing to do with the international conference.

——Identity of the suspect

The police confirmed that the arrested suspect is Farhad Noori, 24 years old, from Afghanistan. He entered Germany in 2016 and lives in Munich. He holds a valid residence permit and has been kept by the police for drug-related and shoplifting. According to some officials, his asylum application was rejected, but he found a job, so he can stay in Germany legally.

The Bavarian department responsible for investigating extremism and terrorism is investigating.

Three weeks before the car-ramming incident, a two-year-old boy and a man were killed in a kindergarten knife attack in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. The suspect is a 28-year-old Afghan who also had his asylum application rejected. The police said he had a history of mental illness.

According to the Associated Press, the Aschaffenburg incident made the immigration issue suddenly become one of the central issues of the German election.

——The Prime Minister’s statement

German Chancellor Scholz said at a campaign event on the 13th that the car-ramming incident in Munich was a “terrible attack” that was intolerable and unacceptable. He said the attackers “must be punished” and “must leave” Germany.

German Interior Minister Nancy Feser said the federal government had “significantly tightened” the law to expel violent criminals and stepped up deportations, and now these regulations must be enforced at all costs.

—— Influence on the general election

Since last year, there have been a number of attacks in Germany where the perpetrators are foreign immigrants, making immigration a hot topic in Germany.

Germany plans to hold a new federal parliamentary election on February 23 to determine the new prime minister. With an eye on the general election, the ruling and opposition parties in Germany have shown an increasingly tough stance on immigration.

The largest center-right opposition party, the Union Party, composed of the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, advocates a tougher stance on illegal immigration, calling for more people to be stopped at the border and more people to be expelled from the country. Curbing foreign immigration is also one of the core arguments of the far-right party, the German Choice Party, whose public support rate is second only to the Union Party.

Bavarian Premier Söder from the CSU said on the 13th: “This is not the first time this has happened… We are determined that something must change in Germany, and change quickly.”

CDU Chairman Friedrich Merz is seen as the most popular candidate for the next prime minister. He said that public security is a top priority, “We will enforce law and order, and everyone must feel safe again in our country.”

Alice Weidel, co-chair of the German Choice Party, wrote on social media X: “Should this continue forever? Immigration (policy) is now turning around!”

The Scholz government used airplanes to repatriate some convicted Afghan immigrants for the first time last August. Scholz said the government is preparing to do so again, “not once, but continuously.”

However, according to the official explanation of Germany, considering the security situation in Afghanistan, it is very difficult to deport illegal immigrants to their country of origin.