While opposition politicians demanded resumed deportations in the wake of the deadly knife attack by an Islamist in Mannheim on Friday, the German government doubled down on not deporting failed asylum seekers. Instead, representatives for the traffic light coalition called for national unity, placing blame on the ‘far right’ for ‘instrumentalising’ the political violence to call for tightening immigration laws.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation into the knife attack committed by an Islamist asylum seeker from Afghanistan. German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said there are clear indications of an Islamist motive for the attack. The federal prosecutor’s office said the attack may have been religiously motivated: the perpetrator is suspected to have wanted to prevent critics of Islam from exercising their right to freedom of expression.
The 25-year-old Afghan injured six people, including anti-Islamist activist Michael Stürzenberger, at an anti-Islamism rally in the southern German city of Mannheim on Friday, May 31st. One of his victims was a 29-year-old policeman, Rouven L., who he stabbed several times in the head. The officer died in hospital on Sunday. The attacker was shot and wounded by police, and remains in hospital. He faces possible charges of murder, attempted murder, and five counts of serious bodily harm.
As we reported, Sulaiman Ataee arrived in Germany in 2013 and his asylum application was rejected a year later. However, he remained in the country illegally for another nine years. In 2023, he received a temporary residence permit after fathering a child who automatically gained German citizenship.
The stabbing has inflamed the debate on the failures of Germany’s open-border policies and whether to deport dangerous migrant criminals. The opposition anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) made it clear that “immigration from Afghanistan must be stopped” and deportations to the country restarted. Deportations to Afghanistan were suspended three years ago when the Islamist Taliban movement regained power there.
Politicians from the centre-right opposition CDU/CSU alliance, which during its time in government oversaw the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants, also urged the current left-liberal government to act, with Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) saying conditions should be created for the possibility of returning criminals and those who pose a threat to Syria and Afghanistan. Even Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote, a member of the governing Social Democrats (SPD) said “we must find a way to resume deportations to Afghanistan for criminals, but also for those who pose a threat, and Islamist enemies of the constitution.”
However, his seems to be a lonely voice within the government, as other social democrats made it clear: now is not the time for deportations to resume. Development Minister Svenja Schulze said Germany has to continue to take in many people from Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries as asylum seekers because it is important to reduce the imbalance between the main refugee host countries in the Global South and the countries in the Global North.
The government’s special representative for migration agreements, Joachim Stamp—of the liberal FDP—also poured cold water over efforts to restart deportations, saying repatriations to places like Syria are impossible “if butchers like Assad rule there.” Instead, he believes spreading a “positive migration narrative” in society would be a good solution in this tense migration debate.
Other politicians chose to shift the debate and put the blame on the “far right” for stoking societal divisions. At a migration conference hosted by the SPD on Monday, there was not much talk of the Mannheim attack and Islamism in general, however, parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich said it is now important to express “disgust” towards all those who instrumentalise “criminal violence” for their political demands. “The country must not be divided,” he added.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock—of the Greens— struck a similar tone, saying “if the aim of extremists, whether far-right or Islamist, is to split a free society, then the answer has to be that we answer together as a society.” She urged fellow politicians not to instrumentalise the attack by demanding tougher migration laws.
In its scathing attack on the government, the country’s most widely-circulated daily, Bild, denounced politicians from both the Left and the centre-right for talking but not acting on deportation and reinstating law and order on the borders of Germany. “I seriously ask myself: Who should a stable democrat vote for in this country if he simply wants law and order?” the author of the article asks.