What’s New
The man who rammed a car into the crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday evening, killing at least five people, has been remanded in custody.
The suspect has been identified as a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian psychiatrist who has lived in Germany for more than two decades. While police did not reveal his identity, German media are referring to him as Taleb A. or Taleb al-Abdulmohsen.
The motive for the attack, which left more than 200 people injured and killed four women and a 9-year-old child, is still unclear, according to police.
Why It Matters
After the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government on December 16, Germany is facing early elections on February 23. The car-ramming attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market could be politicized by far-right parties in the country, which have already made advances in parts of Germany.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, which entered the Bundestag for the first time in 2017 and is strongly anti-immigration, is currently polling at nearly 20 percent. Should the party win any more seats in parliament, a potential coalition government formed by mainstream parties would be even more fractious and less stable than Scholz’s.
What We Know
The suspect was driving a rented car, a black BMW, at the time of the attack, which lasted a total of around three minutes. The victims have not been identified yet, but we know that the four women killed were aged 45, 52, 67, and 75.
According to local media, the man arrived in Germany in 2006 and worked as a doctor. In 2016, he was recognized as a refugee.
He was arrested at the scene of the attack on Friday evening and on Saturday evening he was brought in front of a judge, who ordered pretrial detention. He is facing five counts of murder, multiple attempted murder and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm, according to police. He is thought to have acted alone.
Also on Saturday evening, a memorial service was held for the victims of the attack at Magdeburg Cathedral.
What People Are Saying
Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor: “What a terrible act it is to injure and kill so many people with such brutality.”
Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday that the man was: “an Islamophobe.”
Peter Neumann, professor of security studies at King’s College London, wrote on X. formerly Twitter: “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance toward Islamists—that really wasn’t on my radar.”
What’s Next
An investigation into the attack and the suspect’s motive is ongoing. Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said on Saturday that investigators are considering that a potential motive for the attack “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany.”
Al-Abdulmohsen’s social media history suggests he had been critical of Islam in the past, and he had no known links to Islamist extremism. Reuters reported that his posts on X showed his support for AfD and far-right parties.
The Magdeburg Christmas market will remain closed until the end of the season.
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