Was a bloodbath only narrowly prevented? The incident in Hagen apparently shows once again that the Islamist threat is omnipresent in Germany.
But the problems are often concealed. Rainer Wendt (64), Federal Chairman of the German Police Union, told the newspaper BILD: “The connection between crime and immigration is the most taboo topic in the election campaign.
In fact, during the first TV debate between the candidates for chancellor of the Christian Democratic Union, the Social Democratic Party and the Greens, the topic “migration” was not even mentioned. It was not much different at the second debate: the huge topic was only touched on briefly at the end of the discussion.
Yesterday, at least CDU leader Armin Laschet made it clear: “Those who come to settle here should integrate, learn German language and also have a job, and they should be allowed to stay. But those who plan terrorist attacks must be expelled from the country.”
The fact is: according to the Federal Criminal Police Office’s “Crime in the Context of Immigration” report, 12.4 per cent of murder and manslaughter suspects in Germany in 2020 were immigrants. However, their share of the total population is only 2.1 per cent.
Mathias Middelberg ( Christian Democratic Union) told BILD: “We know that refugees from certain countries appear in the crime statistics much more frequently than their share of the population.
Middelberg said that even now, around 12,000 new asylum seekers are arriving every month. “Most of the refugees we have taken in since 2015 have not yet been integrated into the labour market.
Laschet’s security spokesman Peter Neumann (46) adds: “Integration and prevention are important. This also includes a clear communication of values: “Young people, no matter where they come from, must understand that anti-Semitism is unacceptable in Germany and that the protection of Jewish life is part of the German reason of state.”
But for professor of politics Jürgen W. Falter (77, University of Mainz) it is clear:”The parties are avoiding the issue. They are afraid that the AfD could profit from it.”