Germany promised permanent border controls after the knife attack

The conservative opposition leader tipped to lead Germany in next month’s election has promised sweeping changes to border and asylum laws, after children were targeted in a knife attack in Bavaria.

Friedrich Merz has promised to close Germany’s borders to all irregular migrants, including those entitled to protection.

A two-year-old Moroccan boy and a 41-year-old man were killed in an attack in Aschaffenburg on Wednesday, while several others were injured.

The 28-year-old Afghan man is due to appear in court on charges of murder and grievous bodily harm.

Wednesday’s stabbing in Aschaffenburg is the latest in a series of brutal and deadly attacks involving suspected asylum seekers in Germany.

Within hours, the stinging attack prompted a stern voice from Chancellor Olaf Scholz as well as centre-right opposition leader Merz.

Scholes vowed to take immediate action and called it an “act of terror” – although authorities have yet to say whether they believe there was a terrorist motive.

Merz, who leads the Christian Democrats polls ahead of the February 23 federal election, refused to accept that attacks in Mannheim last May, Solingen in August and Magdeburg last month would be the “new normal”.

The Afghan suspect in yesterday’s attack It entered Germany in 2022 and is linked to three previous violent incidents, Bavarian officials said. He agreed to leave Germany last month but is still undergoing psychiatric treatment and living in an asylum.

The investigating judge decides whether the judge should remain in prison or be temporarily committed to a psychiatric hospital.

On his first day as chancellor, Merz said he would instruct the interior ministry to permanently monitor Germany’s borders.

We see before us the ruins of 10 years of misguided asylum and immigration policy in Germany. “We have reached the limit.”

Germany took in more than one million refugees during Europe’s 2015-16 refugee crisis, according to her party colleague Angela Merkel.

Criticizing the EU’s asylum laws as “recognizably unworkable”, he said Germany must now “use its right to the primacy of national law”.

Germany has reinstated checks at its borders, but not on a permanent basis, to prevent illegal immigration, which is allowed temporarily under the EU’s border-free Schengen rules.

He said it is time to significantly increase the number of places in prison before the poison is expelled.

Merz’s Berlin chancellor’s promise on day one to close borders to illegal entry has a Trumpian ring to it.

They have a US President. Pushed by many executive orders and actions Since reentering the White House this week to tackle illegal immigration.

In Germany, both the center-left chancellor and Merz know that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has consistently given second place, has made immigration a signature issue.

AfD leader Alice Weidel has called for a vote in Germany’s parliament next week to close Germany’s borders and return irregular migrants. “The Aschaffenberg knife terror must now have consequences,” she said on social media.

Some critics argue that Scholes and Merth’s move to take a tougher stance is now too late. Others argue that a shift to the right by the main parties could simply strengthen the AfD’s arguments.

In any case, German politics does not provide for a presidential type of day one provisions, while forming coalitions with other parties is necessary.

Christian Lindner, leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party, said Merth would not be able to introduce such changes if he entered into a coalition with the Social Democrats or the Green Party.

Interior Minister and Olaf Scholz’s party colleague Nancy Fesser pointed out that “some people are now making untruthful arguments in the context of the election campaign.”

“I can only warn against the misuse of such a terrible act for populism, which only benefits the right-wing populists’ contempt for humanity,” she said.

A 41-year-old man who was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday has been praised for helping a kindergarten group and saving the lives of other children.

Another two-year-old Syrian girl was stabbed in the neck.

The 72-year-old man was seriously injured and the kindergarten teacher had a broken arm.