Germany tightens gun laws and asylum rules after knife attack in Solingen | Germany

Germany's divided coalition government has announced a hard-fought compromise on changes to gun and asylum laws. The aim of these changes is to prevent Islamist attacks like the knife attack last Friday in which three people died.

Three days before the important state elections in which each of the governing parties risks heavy losses to the extreme right, federal government ministers said the alleged rampage by a Syrian asylum seeker at a street festival in the Westphalian city of Solingen had revealed crucial weaknesses in the country's immigration and security policies.

“The attack in Solingen has shocked us deeply and we have said that we as a government will respond with tough measures,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).

She said the government would ban the carrying of knives at public events, including street parties such as the scene of the Solingen attack, and on long-distance public transport such as trains and buses.

Federal police will be empowered to carry out random checks for weapons, including long knives, in high-crime areas such as train stations. Police officers will be allowed to use stun guns to stop violent suspects.

The measures also call for faster deportation of rejected asylum seekers and the cancellation of financial benefits for those who are already registered in another EU member state. The tabloid Bild called this measure “bed, bread, soap”, referring to the minimum provision that they should be given.

Human rights groups such as Pro Asyl criticized the proposal as “unconstitutional” and stated that “cutting social benefits must not serve as an alleged deterrent.”

Faeser said: “In Germany, no one has to go hungry or sleep on the streets.”

The suspect in Solingen, who allegedly killed three people and injured eight, was due to be returned to Bulgaria last year, but was not at his accommodation when he was due to be picked up.

Asylum seekers are also prohibited from taking holidays in their countries of origin. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, a FDP parliamentary group leader, said this was “in clear contradiction to the claim that their home countries are not safe”.

Such trips would only be permitted in exceptional cases, “for example to a family funeral,” said Faeser. Violations could result in loss of asylum status.

Security authorities will be granted broader rights to use biometric data, including facial recognition found on the internet, to better determine the identity of suspects. Information collected on asylum seekers will also be used for this purpose.

Buschmann said that “tens of thousands” of asylum seekers in Germany could not be sent back to their homeland or to the EU country in which they were registered “simply because they could not be found at the time of a planned deportation”.

The government agreed to increase the use of artificial intelligence to combat Islamist propaganda on the Internet, which Buschmann said is one of the main causes of the radicalization of migrants.

Anja Hajduk, minister in the Czech Ministry of Economy and representative of the Greens at the press conference, referred to the charged atmosphere surrounding migration and security issues since last week's attack and said the coalition wanted to focus on the integration of foreign citizens and the prevention of extremism.

Hajduk said the government's internal debate was “guided by the principle that the fundamental right to asylum must be protected in our country.” She said it was “important to counter the general suspicion towards people based on their origins.”

However, she said, “this horrific attack has shown us that it is critical” to take measures to strengthen security.

The coalition parties said they would meet with the conservative opposition CDU and representatives of Germany's 16 federal states early next week to agree further changes.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who is expected to run against Chancellor Olaf Scholz in next September's federal elections, accused him of “losing control of his own country” as he called for a series of tough measures against asylum seekers.

Last week's attack has increased pressure on Scholz's often-paralysed government, which faces some of the country's toughest political challenges ahead of crucial state elections in eastern Germany, two of which take place on Sunday.

In all national polls, a good result is expected for the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AFD), which used the massacres in Solingen as an example of the government's failure.

The left-wing conservative upstart Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, which is also extremely critical of German migration policy, is likely to achieve a double-digit share of the vote and thus possibly push some established parties below the five percent hurdle required to enter the state parliament.