After Munich rampage

Taliban offer Germany help with deportations

The 24-year-old is said to have previously posted an Islamist post. He was arrested.

(Bild: BILD/privat)

The attack in Munich overshadows the election campaign shortly before the general election: A 24-year-old asylum seeker crashes into a demonstration. The security and migration debates that have been shaking the country for weeks continue to escalate. Politicians are calling for tough consequences - and the Taliban are also open to cooperating on deportations.

It was probably another perpetrator who had applied for asylum in Germany. As it turned out late on Thursday evening, the perpetrator was neither required to leave the country nor had a criminal record. The 24-year-old is said to have had a residence and work permit from the city of Munich. However, there are indications of Islamist sentiments, as the investigators will now examine. The bitter realization that it was migrants who became perpetrators in Mannheim, Solingen, Magdeburg, Aschaffenburg and now also in Munich was not only revealed this Thursday.

Drive amok during security conference
Munich's city center was full of police officers on Thursday when 24-year-old Farhad N. drove a Mini Cooper into a crowd of people. The police fired a shot at the driver's car to stop him. Despite this, he still runs down 30 people, including children - one had to be resuscitated on the spot. The highest security level and heightened alert are in place due to the Munich Security Conference, which runs until the weekend and begins on Friday. US Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, among others, are expected the same evening after the rampage.

A shot was fired at the vehicle to stop the driver. The suspected perpetrator - a 24-year-old Afghan - was arrested.

(Bild: AFP)

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has called for toughness following the suspected attack in Munich. "Once again, the suspected perpetrator is a young man from Afghanistan," said the SPD politician in Berlin. "The answer can only be: The constitutional state must show maximum toughness." Faeser emphasized that the federal government had "massively tightened" the laws on the deportation of violent criminals and for more deportations. Now they must be enforced with the utmost consistency. "We are the only country in Europe to deport people back to Afghanistan despite Taliban rule and will continue to do so."

Symbolic gesture instead of effective solution
A reality check shows that the Interior Minister's statement is not entirely true. Last year, only a single deportation flight took off to Afghanistan with 28 criminals. This measure of symbolic politics shortly before the elections in eastern Germany took place after the attack in Solingen, in which a rejected asylum seeker from Afghanistan attacked several people with a knife. Previously, deportations to Afghanistan had been suspended due to the insecure situation and the Taliban coming to power in 2021. The resumption of deportations marked a change in German migration policy, which critics view with concern.

Deportations to Afghanistan had long been suspended because the country is considered unsafe, Germany has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban government and international law guarantees protection from persecution. Scholz used his election campaign appearance in Fürth as an opportunity to call for the deportation of foreign criminals and announced a crackdown. "This perpetrator cannot count on any leniency. He must be punished and he must leave the country," said the SPD politician. An act like the one in Munich could neither be tolerated nor accepted. "It must therefore be very clear that the judiciary will take tough action against this perpetrator with all the means at its disposal," said Scholz.

Anyone who commits crimes in Germany will not only be severely punished and sent to prison, but must also expect that they will not be able to continue their stay in Germany.

Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (SPD)

Taliban make Germany an offer of deportation
The radical Islamist Taliban seized the opportunity and offered Germany their cooperation on Thursday: "We have signaled our willingness to resume consular services for Afghans in Germany, covering all aspects of migration," explained Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Kahar Balchi. Critics had previously warned against such talks with the internationally isolated Islamists. The Taliban could benefit from deportations by presenting them as an opportunity for cooperation with a Western state.

The Taliban reject a detour via Afghanistan's neighboring countries such as Pakistan, as the German government has already considered in the past, and see this as a violation of current conventions. "We are not prepared to accept irregular procedures that bypass Afghanistan and pose a threat to our national security," emphasized Balchi. A possible punishment of the offenders after their arrival in Afghanistan should be regulated through bilateral talks. The extremists' word can hardly be relied upon.

Munich shakes up election campaign
Ten days before the general election, it is hard not to wonder what the suspected attack in Munich will mean for the election result. Problems in dealing with migration urgently require new solutions. The country is faced with the question of how it can guarantee its inhabitants security while remaining open, humane and helpful. 

It remains to be seen whether this attack will bring the AfD new votes - for its uncompromising stance not only against asylum seekers, but against everything foreign in general. The political debate is intensifying and the consequences for the coming years are hard to predict. It is not only the CDU/CSU that is convinced that it will only be able to win votes from the AfD if it takes a similarly hard line on migration policy. The sharp tone struck recently by Faeser, Scholz and Merz confirms this once again.