A spontaneous memorial created by grieving families and local residents in a church overlooking Magdeburg’s Christmas market turned more political during Saturday.
The changing tone at the site of Friday’s car-ramming attack that killed five people and injured more than 200 reflects political tensions in the country over immigration and the growing popularity of the far-right Alternative for Germany. Struggling with debate. AfD).
Authorities arrested a Saudi man with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric, but said the motives for the attack were not yet known.
At first, when people laid flowers outside the church early in the morning, there were only expressions of sadness and grief.
Andrea Reis, 57, arrived with her 34-year-old daughter Julia and escaped unhurt.
This, he said, happened only because his daughter wanted them to wander around the market instead of stopping to eat, so they were not in the path of a car that was passing through the market.
“There were these horrible voices, kids saying ‘Mom, Dad’, ‘Help me’ – they’re playing through my mind now,” Rees said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Another young woman doubled over with grief and sobbed as an elderly couple embraced her.
Initially, the attack was compared on social media to the deadly attack by an Islamist-influenced immigrant at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016.
It later emerged that the suspect, a psychiatrist who had lived in Germany for 18 years, had criticized Islam and expressed sympathy for the far right in previous social media posts. This prompted the far right to seek damage control.
Martin Sellner, an Austrian popular among Germany’s far right, posted on social media that the suspect’s intentions “appear to be complex”, adding that the suspect “hated Islam, but he hated Germans more”.
As the day progressed, politicians including Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to lay flowers at the spontaneous memorial.
By the time AfD co-leader Tino Kruppalla arrived, the crowd was filled with youth, who had responded to a call by the party’s youth wing on social media from across East Germany to join a vigil.
The party, particularly strong in East Germany, finished first or second in three regional votes this autumn, and hopes for greater success in the national election in February.
Many of the gathered supporters wore symbols associated with neo-paganism and other esoteric movements associated with the far right.
A young man, who said he was from the youth wing of the AfD, wore an amulet depicting the hammer of the Norse god Thor.
“I believe in the old gods,” he said, declining to give his name.
Interior Minister Nancy Feser expressed concern that the attack could be exploited by the far right, but said little could be done to prevent coordinated gatherings.
“We have freedom of assembly in this country,” he said while visiting the scene of the attack. “We must make every effort to ensure that the attack is not misused by any party.”
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