December 20th – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, together with the interior minister, foreign minister and the mayor of Berlin, visit the site of the deadly terrorist attack in the German capital.
The previous day, a truck ploughed into the crowded Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz, in an attack similar to what was seen in Nice, southern France, in Summer 2016. The attack killed 12 people and injured 48.
German President Joachim Gauck also gave a press conference, stating: “We are united in grief today with the relatives of the victims of the Berlin attack. We mourn the dead, we are worried about the injured and we feel with their families and their friends. We won’t leave them alone with their agony.”
One man, appearing to be of Pakistani background, was arrested at the scene, however police have not confirmed he was the driver of the truck, and believe there may have been other people in the truck, who are still at large.
The opposition party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), was quick to criticize Merkel’s open door migrant policy for the attack. Since 2015 well over 1 million migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have poured into Europe. The most popular destination has been Germany, due to friendly government policies.
“We must be under no illusions,” AfD co-chairwoman Frauke Petry told Bloomberg News. “The breeding ground in which such acts can flourish has been negligently and systematically imported over the past year and a half.”
The string of Islamist attacks in Western Europe over the last two years have refocused public awareness on the risks of liberal immigration policies.
(NTD Television)
