Sadness and anger in Magdeburg after the attack on the Christmas market

The Magdeburg Christmas market is a sad sight. This should have been the busiest weekend of the season, but the entire area has been cordoned off and all stands closed.

The police are the only people walking among the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.

Red candles flicker on the sidewalk and tributes are paid to the victims.

Lukas, a truck driver, told me he felt compelled to come pay his respects. “I wasn’t there when it happened,” he told me.

“But I work here in Magdeburg. I’m here every day. I’ve passed by here thousands of times.”

“Here in Magdeburg it is a tragedy for everyone. The perpetrator must be punished.”

“We can only hope that the victims and their families find the strength to face it.”

There is sadness here, but also anger.

Many people here see this attack as a terrible security breach. That is a claim that authorities reject, although they have admitted that the attacker entered the market using a route intended for emergency services.

Michael, who also came to pay tribute to the victims, said “there should have been better security.”

“We should have been better prepared, but we didn’t do it properly.”

Standing by the security cordon I heard a group of locals complaining loudly about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional politicians.

“They are wasting our tax money, they only care about themselves. They are not interested in us. We only hear empty promises,” said one man.

“They are changing what happened here and they want to put the blame on the opposition and use it for their electoral campaign,” he said.

On Saturday afternoon, around the same time as the square in front of Magdeburg’s Gothic cathedral was filling with mourners watching a memorial service, a demonstration took place nearby.

Protesters held a banner that read “Remigration Now!” – a popular concept among the far right – and shouted “those who don’t love Germany should leave Germany.”

It is not yet clear what impact this attack may have on the upcoming elections in Germany.

Germany has been hit by a series of deadly Islamist attacks in the past, but investigators said the evidence they have gathered so far suggests a different picture in this case.

Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect appeared to have been “Islamophobic.”

The suspect, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, is from Saudi Arabia and his social media posts suggest he had been critical of Islam.

He also expressed sympathy on social media for Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), retweeting posts from the party’s leader and a far-right activist.