Friedrich Merz vows to secure Germany’s borders after Bavarian knife attack

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Friedrich Merz, who is leading the race to become German Chancellor, plans to introduce a migration bill to impose “only” border controls after a deadly knife attack in the south of the country.

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union, who is expected to win a general election on February 23, has also vowed to curb the influx of asylum seekers and speed up deportations. His party plans to set the stage for parliamentary elections as soon as next week, he said on Friday.

The EU’s existing immigration rules were “not working”, the conservative leader said, adding: “Germany must therefore exercise its fundamental right under national law .”

The proposed measures respond to a growing public outcry following Wednesday’s killing of a two-year-old child and an adult by an Afghan asylum seeker in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg. Frustration over Berlin’s inability to take a hard line on irregular migration has increased support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The attack in the town 40km southeast of Frankfurt comes a month after a Saudi Arabian doctor broke into a Christmas market in the eastern city of. Magdeburgit killed six and injured hundreds. In August, a Syrian citizen killed three people and injured eight others in the western town of Solingen. The terrorist group Isis claimed responsibility for the attack in Solingen.

The AfD has taken attacks to justify its calls mass deportations of immigrants. The party is projected to finish second with 20 percent of the vote, according to pollsters. On Wednesday, AfD leader Alice Weidel published a letter urging Merz to cooperate with parliament on immigration.

Merz was trying to draw a line under former CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, who divided her party by allowing 1mn mainly Syrian refugees into Germany in 2015, Uwe Jun, political analyst .

“But it’s hard to see how any party can benefit from the current immigration debate other than the AfD,” Jun said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democratic party is trailing in third place in the polls, has sought to shift the blame for the latest attack to Markus Söder, the Bavarian president. Söder is the leader of the Christian Social Union, the CDU party in Bavaria, and has been campaigning with Merz.

The suspect in Wednesday’s attack, who was arrested, is a 28-year-old Afghan national whose asylum application was rejected in 2023 and was due to be returned to Bulgaria, where he joined the EU. He had known mental health problems and had told authorities he would leave Germany voluntarily last month, according to Bavarian authorities.

After the attack on Solingen, Scholz’s corporation was introduced temporary controls along all its national borders, a move it says is “in line with European law”.

But Scholz has been criticized for failing to solve the problem. “Blah-Blah Chancellor,” read the headline on the front page of Bild, Germany’s largest daily, on Friday.

“The blame game is on now,” said Henning Meyer, professor of public policy at the University of Tübingen. “People rightly feel that the government is not in control, but it is a problem of the system.”

Meyer added: “All the attackers were known and some were identified as potential threats. There is a problem with the flow of information between the authorities.”

Several organizations received warnings about the Magdeburg attacker, a refugee who had expressed support for the AfD and had known psychiatric issues.

Merz’s party can get a parliamentary majority for his immigration proposals with the support of the Liberals, the AfD and Sahra Wagenknecht’s party without the support of the SPD and the Greens. The two coalition parties may face a setback if they decide to reject or deny the measures.

Green MP Konstantin von Notz warned that these proposals “were not compatible with the European constitution or law . . . Merz follows in the footsteps of Donald Trump”.

Merz also risks losing support if the attacks continue, Professor Meyer said.

“Merz wants to make border controls permanent, but the danger is that he over-promises and under-delivers, and there is another attack,” he said. “Illegal immigrants don’t like to be seen sitting at the borders and Germany has a big green border.”