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December 22, 2024 - 5:30pm
Friday’s attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has so far left five dead, hundreds injured, and the script for the country’s February snap election in tatters.
The suspected perpetrator, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi-Arabia who sought asylum in Germany and has lived there for two decades, was arrested at the scene. As a consequence, a historically short election campaign season will be centred largely around migration. On social media, a debate is already raging as to whether the attack should be treated as a further example of migrant violence or a far-Right hate crime.
As more details emerge, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, is expected tomorrow to join a rally at the scene of the attack. On the other side, a demonstration against the far-Right is set to take place in Magdeburg this evening. “Everyone is welcome,” the organisers state, “except for Nazis.” And as Olaf Scholz calls for “togetherness in the face of hate”, Elon Musk has demanded the immediate resignation of the Chancellor, labelling him an “incompetent fool”.
It was only last Monday that Scholz lost a no-confidence vote in the Bundestag, allowing elections to take place in February rather than September. With deindustrialisation in full swing, the cost of living rising, and an energy crisis becoming increasingly apparent following attempts to phase out nuclear power, coal, and Russian gas simultaneously, the stage seemed set for an election focusing on Germany’s near-catastrophic economic downturn.
Would the current Green Minister of the Economy, Robert Habeck, serve in the same function in a conservative-led cabinet? Would the next government bring an end to the notorious debt ceiling enshrined in the German constitution? Would there be a broad majority for raising the minimum wage and finding a way to rein in exploding health insurance costs?
With the exception of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party (CSU) — which feature clear proposals for a “turn in migration policy” in their 10-point election plan — Germany’s political establishment seemed relieved to avoid a difficult conversation around migration.
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Subscribe“And we must ensure that the best skilled workers can and want to come to us easily…”
This seems to be a Green party of England and Wales policy as well. Completely oblivious to the reality that it is poaching of skilled people by luring them from poorer countries who not only need them badly but have put up the money to train them in the first place. Compassionate colonialism, perhaps.
When you are tired of living parasitically off the cheap labor of the Third World, you are tired of life.
The real end is when you start offshoring the production of children.
The far left dream of ending all nationalities in favour of one big happy family of people doing as they are told by an autocratic communist government requires the breaking down of national identity and democratic choice. It’s a long term project, but mass migration helps.
That might make sense if most immigrants were skilled but, apparently, most immigrants are not such.
“far-right”
How much longer will journalists force this ugly term upon anyone who does not lean left? The very use of that term betrays the inability of the left to answer cogently for its failures. Just call those who disagree with the left’s orthodoxy “Nazis” and skip actually offering a cogent rebuttal to their quite valid concerns.
“Far right” implies that there is also a “near right” of which we never hear. Are we to believe that in all these Western democracies the populations distribute their political sentiments from the far left to the center in a continuous spectrum only to be broken by a vast void from the center to the far right? Hitler was far right, Alice Weidel? No way.
The problem: Islamic Supmaracy, anti-white race hate, Christ hate.
That’s the gigantic elephant in the room, growing by the day, stinking out all of Europe.
Germany’s fate was long ago sealed. The angst over acts of terrorism will subside in future generations as the irreversible metamorphosis into a majority Moslem state progresses. The ingredients to rescue liberal democracy are missing: insufficient “native” birthrate, respect for traditional values, and the dominance of relativism over moral certainty. The alarm and resistance from the Right will be insufficient to achieve anything more than the shriek of a dying civilization.
Even though Elon Musk is right to heavily criticise Scholz (I think he is the worst chancellor in my lifetime – I’m an 1982 vintage), I wish the man would pipe down right now.
Not just because I reject the idea of the AFD being the answer to any of Germany’s many problems. It’s mainly because by raising his voice, it takes the heat off the mainstream parties in DE who should have to spend time contemplating why their own mistakes have lead so many to run into the arms of the AFD.
Now, Elon Musk Dérangement Syndrome will raise its ugly head and give all those politicians and journalists who would otherwise have to ponder some very difficult questions about their own faults and culpability a chance to duck out and say “it’s Elon’s fault, the dumb voters are bring brainwashed by the billionnaire.” No one benefits from this avoidance, no one moves forward.
I reject the idea of the AFD being the answer to any of Germany’s many problems
.
Yes, you can, but swallow the consequences. People killed in Magdeburg are victims of your wishful thinking.
The headline is wrong. The appropriate word is not migration, but immigration. Rather a poor show for Unherd to be so mealy mouthed, but others have already commented on how Unherd seems to be “falling into line” with other media outlets.
The Spectator hasn’t been worth reading for some years and the chances of it improving under Gove are minimal.
My understanding of this attack is that the perpetrator, according to his social media as reported by most news outlets, is anti-Muslim, so therefore Germany should admit more Muslim immigrants, because as horrific as this tragedy was, if Germany’s diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.
Very good indeed…not sure some will get the meaning though…