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After an attacker drove an SUV. killed five people, calls for solidarity temporarily gave way to complaints from rival lawmakers in the run-up to early elections scheduled for February.
By Melissa Eddy
Reporting from Berlin
Days after an attacker drove a pickup truck. After killing five more people at a Christmas market in eastern Germany, calls for solidarity gave way to political shootouts, as doubts arose Monday about the authorities’ inability to save the deaths.
The police are holding a Saudi refugee, a 50-year-old doctor, who they say carried out the attack. He had been living in Germany for nearly two decades.
Still, the killings, in the eastern city of Magdeburg, brought concerns about immigration and security back to the fore, with political leaders on Monday looking to position themselves on those hot-button issues ahead of snap elections scheduled for February.
Despite calls not to use the attack for political gain, complaints from the German government (added by Elon Musk) have come from all sides. The fallout will most likely fuel what is already shaping up to be a brief but intense crusade after the government has collapsed following Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s loss in a vote of confidence in parliament last week.
The far-right Alternative for Germany party demonstrated in Magdeburg on Monday. Hundreds of people attended the occasion in the city centre, chanting “If you don’t like Germany, leave it” and “Deport it!” “.
Ahead of the demonstration, the party’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, made it clear that the event would also be used for political purposes.
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