Christmas Market Attack in Magdeburg: Far-Right Exploits Tragedy

For years I have watched the far-right party mobilize in my hometown. I fear Friday's terrible events will galvanize it further. People had gathered at St John's church, contemplating a lake of candles, flowers, and soft toys. Then he loudly voiced his disbelief. “And then they say he supported the AfD. As if. You just can't believe the media anymore.” The photo of a dead nine-year-old boy was being shown around.

Used rescue blankets piled up at the roadside as police guarded the now empty market. St John's, the oldest church in the city, now deconsecrated, has a special place in the hearts of Magdeburgers. We, even as atheists, mark important family events there: it is where I had my formal, secular, coming of age ceremony – just like many others in this part of eastern Germany. But after Friday night, this place, just meters away from the scene of the attack, carries a new scar. Magdeburg is, naturally, still in shock. The Christmas market was a popular meeting place in a city that lost its historical core in the Second World War and got rebuilt as a rather airy, wide-open space. The angry man at St John's church echoed how its people struggle to make sense of this violence – and especially of what has become known about the attacker since. Once the suspect's nationality became public, representatives of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland wasted no time. While Magdeburg’s mayor, Simone Borris, could not hold back tears during a press conference, the AfD declared that an attack like this would not have happened before 2015, the year of the big migrant surge. There were calls for “consequences” and blame for the ruling parties. However, the image of Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi, became more blurry. The psychiatrist arrived in Germany in 2006 and was later granted political asylum, which – in theory – makes him one of the very few “truly vulnerable” people that even AfD hardliners have claimed they would allow into the country.

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