Illegal immigration to Germany “must decrease” after a Syrian man who traveled to Germany to seek asylum was charged with killing three people in an attack in the western town of Solingen last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
“This was terrorism, terrorism against all of us,” Mr Scholz said during a visit to Solingen on Monday.
Mr Scholz also said his government would have to do “everything possible to ensure that those who cannot and should not stay here in Germany are sent back and deported” and that deportations would be accelerated if necessary.
He also promised to tighten gun ownership laws “as soon as possible”.
The political nature of the tragedy began to reverberate across Germany shortly after officials confirmed that the suspect in Friday’s fatal stabbing was a Syrian refugee.
The suspected attacker – identified as Issa Al H., 26, – is suspected of having ties to the Islamic State terrorist group.
The already heated debate about immigration has become even more hateful.
A day after the attack, opposition leader Friedrich Merz called for an end to taking in refugees from Syria and Afghanistan and called for control of all German borders.
Alice Weidel, leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has gone a step further and wants a complete halt to all immigration.
Experts say such proposals are unfeasible and inconsistent with German and European Union law.
Mr Scholz’s centre-left SPD party says Germany remains committed to its legal and humanitarian obligations to help those fleeing persecution.
But his government has also promised to deport immigrants who have committed serious crimes and people whose asylum applications have been rejected.
The suspect in the Solingen attack arrived in Germany in 2022 as a refugee from Syria. Usually Syrians have a good chance of being granted asylum in Germany.
But his request was rejected and he was ordered to be deported to Bulgaria, because he had registered for asylum there. Officials say that when they tried to deport him, they did not find him and he remained in Germany.
Now a dispute has arisen as to who did that failure.
Germany rarely deports people to unsafe countries or war zones like Syria, or Afghanistan – which would involve negotiating with the Taliban government. But there are calls to change that.
For years, Germany has been involved in a controversial debate on migration. Local councils say their budgets have been stretched. There are also calls to speed up the application process and allow refugees to work sooner which some say will help them integrate into German society.
Given the large number of refugees Germany is taking in, the country is generally coping well, and this year the number of refugees appears to be decreasing.
However, Germany usually takes in hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers every year.
In 2023 more than 350,000 people apply for asylum. In addition, approximately 1.2 million Ukrainians have arrived in Germany since the full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022.
Compared to other countries that take in fewer refugees, terrorist attacks linked to asylum seekers in Germany are rare.
The last major incident was in 2016, when 12 people were killed when an Islamist drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin.
But this latest attack could have a major political impact.
On Sunday, the two largest states in eastern Germany – Saxony and Thuringia – will hold important regional elections.
The AfD, which hopes to do well and potentially win more votes, is already using the attack as part of its campaign.
Within hours of the stabbing, the AfD – referring to the leader of the party in the Thuringia region, Björn Höcke – posted a video on social media with the words “Höcke or Solingen”.
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