The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held an event on Friday evening in the southern German city of Aschaffenburg, where a fatal knife attack has inflamed tensions over migration policy just weeks ahead of national elections.
Among the participants was the AfD’s leader in the state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, who is seen as the head of the party’s radical wing, and is well known across Germany for his fiery rhetoric, having twice been convicted for knowingly quoting a banned Nazi slogan.
Höcke used the occasion to blame government politicians for acts of violence such as the one in Aschaffenburg, a city in north-western Bavaria.
Counter-demonstrators blocked Höcke from a candle-lit place of worship in the city’s Schöntal park, where the attack took place on Wednesday, and shouted “Nazis out.”
Höcke and other AfD officials later laid flowers at a different location.
The suspect in the attack is a 28-year-old Afghan asylum seeker with a history of mental health illnesses. He was temporarily committed to a psychiatric hospital on Thursday.
He is accused of two murders, two attempted murders and one case of dangerous bodily harm.
According to the police and public prosecutors, he has not yet commented on the accusations.
Memorial services
The city’s main memorial service is set to take place on Sunday, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Bavarian Premier Markus Söder among those planning to attend.
It was initially unclear whether relatives of the victims would also be attending.
An alliance of local organizations is planning an event at the city’s Theaterplatz on Saturday to oppose the politicization of the tragedy, with Mayor Jürgen Herzing due to give a speech
An initial commemoration in the park on Thursday drew some 3,000 people, police said.
Teacher released from hospital
Also on Friday, a police spokesman said that a kindergarten teacher who was injured in the attack has been released from hospital. The teacher had a broken arm.
A 2-year-old Syrian girl who was seriously injured in the incident and a 72-year-old man are still in hospital.
“The child will not be released until Monday,” the police spokesman said.
Police: ‘Threshold has been crossed’
Police are continuing to investigate why the suspect was at large when he committed the attack, having been due to face deportation.
It was revealed on Friday that the suspect had also been facing jail over his failure to pay a fine.
The German Police Union (GdP) says a “threshold has been crossed” with the latest attack, which comes after similar incidents in the last year in Magdeburg, Solingen and Mannheim.
“We need quick solutions now,” GdP chairman Jochen Kopelke told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland media group on Friday.
The GdP chapter in the southern state of Bavaria said that “with the murder of a small child, a threshold has been crossed that now finally requires decisive action.”
Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group and party leader in Thuringia Bjoern Hoecke (R) speaks during an AfD memorial event to commemorate the victims of the fatal knife attack in Schoental Park. Arne Dedert/dpa
