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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.
But we never get tired of it and the supply is inexhaustible.
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.
Bullseye!
That might make sense if most immigrants were skilled but, apparently, most immigrants are not such.
Fewer than half of immigrants to the UK work at all, never mind in any skilled positions.
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…
Judging by the number of downvotes, I am afraid you are right…
[Couldn’t resist the temptation, hence the addition:
“you are right, * but I hope not too far-Right]
Take your point – but his social media posts in Arabic paint a different picture to those in German. He’s an Islamist. The media is just engaging in ostrich thinking as usual.
Have you a source for that?
The perp was anti-Islam, a Doctor and a Women’s rights campaigner. So the model immigrant.
How has that worked out for Magdeburg?
Don’t believe a word of that false story (taqiyya anyone?).
That was my first thought
I agree, the reasoning behind this latest travesty just doesn’t make sense.
And rightly so: Garry T used sarcasm, while presenting a version that is more-or-less close to the dominating narrative.
A compelling cover story
And so positive, isn’t it?
Exactly as expected?
His apostacy stance is very likely to be a ruse in order to avoid being sent back to KSA. Remember Muslims are required by their prophet to lie to infidels to help bring them down.
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.
Lots of rejection. What is it that you are proposing?
I totally agree. I think the worst thing Reform could do in the UK is accept his money. I want a return to national politics representing the views of that nation’s electorate, free from foreign interference and tech billionaires’ money.
“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.
I also get pretty tired of the term “far right”. The terminology is mostly used by the “soft” or hard left to condemn anything outside their world view of one happy clappy family of nations, accepting a benign World Government, regulating every aspect of the individual’s life according to the Davos Group and all the big bureaucratic organisations like the United Nation or the EU. Anybody, who is willing to fight against these institutions is labelled “far right”. A libertarian Milei, who is fighting Marxism, as well as the disruptor Trump is now a fascist, Nazi or a new Hitler. The revolt against this Orwellian Philosophy has thankfully now started in many nations, and will hopefully sweep away all these institutions and agencies.
What is nowadays labelled as “far Right” by the Left is just what was labelled “Right” thirty or forty years ago.
What is labelled “Right” today is merely the SDP of the seventies, i.e. the Right living in fear of the judgement passed on by the Far Left of today – sad times indeed!
‘Far Right’ means holding all the usual socially liberal positions but being sceptical of mass immigration.
Yes. Hard right, far right. Like 70% of normal people.
They are labels by very socially liberal – mostly centrists actually who have a slavish worship of mass migration.
Yep I’m unsubscribing. This language is too frequent in Unherd. A commitment to unheard with surely give a column to Tommy Robinson – probably most important unheard voice in British politics in the last 20 years
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.
Or perhaps all that Christmas jollity with families enjoying themselves is just too much for singularly disturbed loners.
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.
Germany has a massive psychological problem when it comes to Nazis. They would rather cut their own throat than be anything close to what they think a Nazi is. Which is what they are doing. There is no other land on this planet that is more traumatised than the Germans.
We all know that modern multiculturalism and mass immigration is an abject failure. We know how damaging it is, yet we cannot stand up for ourselves due to the decades of brainwashing that we can’t be racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, transphobic, or whatever comes next. This has been the worst case of bullying in human history. The MSM is totally complicit in all of this.
The West has many different and varying cultures. All of them are special and wonderful in their own way. We are destroying them in the name of efficiency and peace. We shell out mind numbing sums of money in the form of welfare for the world’s poor, most of which don’t actually receive anything. We pay reparations for imagined wrongs while ignoring so many of our historical rights.
We are not perfect and never tried to be. We used to be a continent of varied peoples who often tried to be better, sometimes failed horrifically, but we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and tried again. We have done so many wonderful things in so many fields of endeavour. And we have just thrown it all away thanks to some silver-tongued devil whispering in our ear to open our hearts and homes yet neglecting to warn us of the dangers that come with it, the sacrifices that need to be made.
We have strayed from our path; the time is soon coming to veer back to it. If we don’t our future will dwindle to nothing but ruins like some ancient archaeological dig.
“There is no other land on this planet that is more traumatized than the Germans…” Israel? The one that the bien pensant of the left are turning on… Because when they said “Never Again” they quite rightly meant it…
The Israelis are strong and resolute. The Germans are guilty beyond measure and deeply fearful of causing hurt to anyone or anything. They would cut their own throat before they defend themselves. The German Greens are probably the worst political party in existence, and a party as crazy as they are would not last long in Israel.
The Germans need to find their backbone again. For the good of a great many people!
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.
Yep, I keep on cancelling and going back to the Spectator – it’s really deteriorated into pablum over the past three or so years while Fraser Nelson was off doing a Hislop and concentrating more on his outside endeavours and hasn’t improved under Gove. Unherd has improved but is still patchy, wavering in finding its feet, its fear exposed by those execrable hit pieces on a certain tommy that were surprisingly so roundly denounced by readers btl.
I just cancelled my Unherd subscription
Agreed. I remember the not-so-distant time when almost every article on UnHerd was a journalistic masterpiece (I started avidly reading this publication at the beginning of 2020 and am among the very first paying subscribers.)
Now UnHerd has definitely lost its edge, which is extremely disappointing. Like the commenters replying to you, I am planning not to renew my annual subscription when it expires.
My particular axe to grind is their dismal and disrespectful moderation system – something I have shared in BTL comments and also in my voluminous correspondence with the UnHerd staff.
Recently, I received reassurances that a new system would be introduced, but, frankly, I am exhausted from seeing my comments disappear and being restored after, say, 16 hours when they become completely pointless, as the discussion has moved on to other articles.
Just to add that the staff are very nice, responsive, and patient, but unfortunately, this does not make the problem with the moderation less exasperating.
How long can these legacy political parties keep trading on an empty bank account?
‘A modern immigration society’ and all the variations of like terms, such as ‘curbs on migration’, are the verbal equivalent of QE.
Scholz’s ‘coming together against hate’ is another dose of ‘anaesthetic for the communities’. Unfortunately, anaesthetic is neither medicine nor food. Additionally, some anaesthetics are addictive.
There must be something uniquely German about ‘far-Right’ hate crime if it can take place in a Christmas market. Given Germany’s 20th century history, ought the ‘far-Right’ to be in favour of pagan Winter celebrations?
“… whether the attack should be treated as a further example of migrant violence or a far-Right hate crime.”
It is unequivocally ‘migrant violence’ – period!
“… far-Right hate crime.” What a twisted view! I am sick of this hateful expression employed constantly by hateful people.
Haven’t seen any Chinese suicide bombers yet.
That’s because China is ruled by the CCP and, hence, no one could be “far-Right”. All Chinese are from the Left, hence no Chinese suicide bombers.
It’s that simple!
How can anyone disagree with calling extreme violence perpetrated by a migrant “an example of migrant violence”? Only someone so divorced from the truth that black is white and left is right.
‘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”.’
I wasn’t aware that Elon Musk is a German citizen.
He’s not, and I’m not sure he is a US citizen. He is not eligible for the US POTUS, certainly. But like Crassus in Rome of 40 BCE, his astonishing wealth gives him influence of an outsized form.
Claiming this bloke was representative of the right wing ? I dont believe it .
Calling anyone who objects to immigration Nazis -no it doesnt wash either.
The economic, housing and healthcare woes are to a large degree downstream of the failed immigration project. Without millions of parasites sucking the blood of our nations, our problems would be largely manageable.
I agree. I am often pulled up for attributing many of our woes in the UK to the massive numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, we have allowed into the country over the last few decades. I don’t understand how people cannot see that with fewer people here we would not have such long waiting lists in the NHS, school places, housing, etc. This is made even worse here (no idea if it is the same in Germany) but the majority of our immigrants don’t work in even menial jobs.
Hopefully, the AfD will stridently capitalize on this horrific crime, and make illegals scum the center-piece of the election season. In specific, with the end of the Assad regime, there is now no reason for Syrians anywhere save Syria. They should ALL be expelled from every European country to go home to Syria to work on the rebuilding.
‘BOUT TIME
I was hoping for an essay about what’s happening in Germany and what the Germans are thinking/feeling. Instead, as usual, all I get is political horse race.
It’s starting to seem as if the alt-press is using politics to avoid the subject of governance.
plus ca change…
As Editor/Secretary of a private society’s special interest group on Atheism and Secularism, I have an interest in how religion and ethics intertwine with governance and society. This is a fertile area for head-scratching, how ancient beliefs, like an image fixed on the event horizon of a black hole into which the past has been swallowed up, can still radiate powerfully into the present. Also for how social development is promoted or held back by values that may or may not be truly traditional, or have a firm basis in biology and principles of cooperation and conflict avoidance, or have simply congealed within a culture.
While one is no longer surprised by sudden acts of terrorism by Islamists who appear to have led even-handed professional careers for many years, and some right-wing extremists, I have to admit bafflement at this act. While the man’s grievance, apart from his extreme view of Angela Merkel, might have had merit I fail to see how his actions help his cause. Did he conclude that anything that would cut through the fog of complacency was justified, even to the extent of grievously violating his oath to ‘do no harm’ and killing the people whom he is ostensibly seeking to protect?
Is it really as bad as that?
The refusal of the mainstream parties to get to grips with immigration will be their undoing. It is sheer cowardice.
So a Saudi ‘dissident’ hated his own religion and mother country to the extent he would try to (if indeed he did) kill and maim hundreds of ordinary people in his adopted country because they were overly generous to illegal immigrants and he hates his prior religion.
I must admit even the usual liberal suspects – you know the ones who don’t call Hamas terrorists and blame Whitey for al the ills of the World – don’t seem to be buying that narative.
He is either incredibly mentally ill and insane or a sleeper agent.