German chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has promised to swiftly introduce stricter weapons laws and enforce existing deportation laws more harshly, in response to the recent knife attack in Solingen.

German chancellor promises to introduce tougher weapons law

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised that the German government will imminently introduce more stringent weapons laws and actively enforce existing deportation laws. 

The announcement follows a knife attack at a street festival in Solingen, southeast of Düsseldorf, during which three people were killed and eight seriously wounded.

On Monday, a 26-year-old man handed himself in to police in connection with the “Festival of Diversity” attack, for which Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility. The young man, named by federal prosecutors as Issa Al H, arrived in Germany in late 2022 and applied for asylum. He is thought to have been radicalised on the internet.

After meeting with local officials and emergency services, Scholz said that his coalition government would “do everything in our power to ensure such things never happen again”.

Scholz said this would include introducing stricter weapons laws and more actively assessing how people whose asylum applications have been rejected can be deported.

In January 2024, the Bundestag already passed a law enabling police to deport people who had had their asylum applications denied more easily. The new law increased the legal maximum duration of detention before deportation from 10 to 28 days and gave police more power to search the houses of asylum seekers. Amnesty International has raised concerns over whether the new legislation breaches fundamental rights, European and international law.

AfD rally met with counter-protest in Solingen

In the city of 160.000 residents, 19 percent of whom do not hold a German passport, an AfD youth wing rally of 30 people was held in Solingen on August 25, which was met with a peaceful counter-protest of a few hundred people.

The attack in Solingen comes as citizens in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg prepare to vote in statewide elections on September 22.

Both CDU leader Friedrich Merz and AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla have used the days following the attack to push their respective parties’ pledges for stricter immigration laws.

The results are hotly awaited across Germany as a local temperature check after the CDU / CSU and AfD came out on top in June’s European elections.

Thumb image credit: Juergen Nowak / Shutterstock.com