Olaf Scholz’s immigration quagmire

Shock quickly turned to anger in Germany when a Syrian asylum seeker was arrested for the brutal knife attack in the city of Solingen last weekend. Three people were murdered and eight more injured by a man who had no right to be in Germany. 

Politicians from the coalition government reacted with a flurry of statements, demanding anything from tougher knife laws to quicker deportations of illegal migrants. But many voters want to see more than tweaks to the immigration system before they can begin to feel safe again on Germany’s streets.

Recognising the tense mood across the country, opposition leader Friedrich Merz has called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz for a response that amounts to more than ‘hollow rituals’ of grief. ‘Enough… no more taboos,’ the Christian Democrat thundered in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Merz demanded nothing less than a U-turn of Germany’s immigration policy.