The German chancellor spoke after laying a white flower at a makeshift memorial in the western German city.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to toughen knife laws and step up deportations of rejected asylum-seekers on Monday as he visited the scene of the knife attack in Solingen.
A suspected Islamic extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people at a festival in the western German city last week.
Speaking after he joined regional officials in laying a white flower at a makeshift memorial, Scholz said he was “furious and angry” about the attack, in which eight people were also wounded.
The suspect turned himself in on Saturday evening, a day after the attack at the Festival of Solidarity, marking the city’s 650th anniversary.
Federal prosecutors said on Sunday that he shared the radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State terrorist group and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the neck and upper body.
The 26-year-old had had his asylum application rejected and was supposed to be deported last year to Bulgaria, where he first entered the EU, but that failed because he disappeared for a time, according to German media reports.
The attack has revived criticism of the government on migration and deportation, an issue on which it has long been vulnerable.
It has taken steps to defuse the issue; lawmakers in January approved legislation intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. The government has also launched legislation to ease the deportation of foreigners who publicly approve of terrorist acts.
“We must do everything to ensure that such things never happen in our country, if possible,” Scholz said, adding that he would include toughening knife laws in particular “and this should and will happen very quickly.”
Scholz said there had been a 30% increase in deportations this year already, but “we will look very closely at how we can contribute to raising these figures even further.” Measures including border checks on Germany’s eastern frontiers have reduced the number of migrants arriving “irregularly,” but there’s room for improvement there too, the chancellor added.
Scholz spoke alongside Hendrik Wüst, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state and a member of Germany’s mainstream conservative opposition, which has long criticised the government on migration. He said he was “thankful” that more action had been announced, but “announcements alone won’t be enough”.
“Action must follow,” Wüst said.
The Solingen attack came ahead of state elections this weekend in two eastern regions, Saxony and Thuringia, where the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling very strongly.
In contrast, the parties in Scholz’s three-way coalition look set for dismal results.
Source: Euro News
