Comment on the Munich attack: Stop this refugee policy

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Comment on the Munich attack: Stop this refugee policy Jasper von Altenbockum • 10 hours • 2 minutes reading time It is hard to believe that a second attack has taken place just a few days before the federal election and that the perpetrator is an asylum seeker. Freeloader? Psychopath? Traumatized? Conviction? Terrorism? Whatever the motive, the Bavarian Prime Minister's simple realization is correct: it is simply not enough for politics and society to show great concern from attack to attack, something actually has to change. But even that has been asserted so often that one could despair. It cannot be denied that a lot has changed. The naive welcoming culture of the Merkel years has evaporated, laws have been changed, immigration has been limited, and repatriations have been forced. It cannot be denied that, despite everything that has been changed, attacks like those in Mannheim, Solingen, Aschaffenburg and now Munich cannot be prevented. The Chancellor is becoming a victim of his own politics The logic of the measures is: the fewer immigrants from the relevant countries, the lower the likelihood of such acts. That is true, but the sheer number of asylum seekers has increased so much over the years that even the most drastic restrictions will not have a quick effect. The danger certainly cannot be reduced to zero. Nevertheless, German politicians should think carefully about how much longer they can tolerate the risk. Humanitarian obligations reach their limits when their protagonists become victims of themselves. The Chancellor ("I'm fed up") is suffering this fate, and with him the parties of the political center. The Munich attack occurred ten days before an election that for the first time raised the question in the Federal Republic of Germany of how a Chancellor should be elected afterwards. The Republic cannot afford the capitulation that is contained in Söder’s question: “Who knows what else will happen?” One thing is certain: what must happen to the current refugee policy is that it must stop.