"Krone" commentary

Evil rides the bus with us, goes shopping with us

Villach in shock after a 23-year-old radicalized Syrian stabbed people indiscriminately and killed a 14-year-old.

(Bild: SVS News Agency)

I can't get that grin out of my head. The Villach assassin is sitting on a stone bench, one of his shoes is missing and he's grinning. He's just stabbed a 14-year-old to death and he's sitting there smiling. The devil's grin, many have written on social media, but the Syrian is worse than the devil: "Krone" Vienna boss Michael Pommer on the act of terror in Villach - and the consequences.

In my imagination, which is probably not entirely biblical, Satan wears horns on his head, he has hooves that he can't lose like sneakers, the teeth of a moray eel and dark red glowing eyes, because they reflect the souls of sinners writhing in the flames. Horror movie damaged, you're right.

In my imagination, the devil doesn't come to 14-year-olds, you have to summon him with ceremonies, Latin formulas, candle rituals or a pact that first brings you infinite wealth and then hell. The devil doesn't look like a passer-by, like every other person you meet in the city. He doesn't disguise himself as a human and stab children in the back.

Commenting for the "Krone" newspaper: Vienna department head Michael Pommer

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

A 14-year-old is dead. The teenager will have said goodbye to someone at home on Saturday, his mother, his father or a brother. "See you later" as a promise he was not allowed to keep. Now the parents have to find a photo for the party note. "Died suddenly and unexpectedly" might be written on it, but it should say: He could still be alive if politics hadn't failed. Is it that banal? From my point of view, it is.

Nobody builds an elementary school next to a highway
One of the tasks of politics is to protect people. It starts with small things like urban planning. Nobody builds an elementary school next to a three-lane highway with a traffic light-free crosswalk across the lanes. The reason is obvious. It's called risk assessment. Or common sense.

It never existed when we took in refugees. We let everyone into the country. The nurse, the doctor, the teacher as well as stabbers, terrorists and now comes my favorite word, the endangerers. These are people who the security authorities believe could commit serious crimes. A bloody subjunctive. They are ticking time bombs, heavily radicalized, consumed by hatred, living next door to us. The state knows that they are unpredictable, but they are here nonetheless. They go shopping with you, ride the bus with you, stand next to you in the pharmacy or in the queue. A policy that allows this in Europe has failed.

And I have another banal thought, I think it's called under-complex these days, but it's my opinion: those who have integrated, who work, who want to live in peace and want that for their children too, who don't grin when there are deaths, should stay. The dangerous, the radicalized, the extremists - and the authorities know who they are - must be sent home by airlift, just like the criminals.

But Syria and Afghanistan are not safe, some will probably say now. Honestly, I don't care. Austria is no longer safe either.