Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier, a Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician, has been working towards a consensus on the consequences of the Aschaffenburg machete attack at the Interior Ministers’ Conference.
“Our goal is to achieve a joint paper at the Interior Ministers’ Conference, even in election times”Maier said in an interview with the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”adding, with a glance at the Alternative for Germany (AfD): “I’m convinced that blame-shifting will only benefit one party.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) faction, Friedrich Merz, has been attempting to “imitate Trump”as he put it, saying that this shows a lack of understanding. Merz also cautioned that, in election times, they should not start spreading unfounded claims. He alluded to the fact that the suspected Aschaffenburg attacker was an rejected Afghan asylum seeker, saying, “It seems to me that the theme of deportation is central. We must eliminate the implementation deficit. That’s what the people expect from us. Because the Aschaffenburg attacker would not have been in the country in the first place. However, essential aspects of this issue lie in the states’ competence. The CDU should therefore drop the ball.”
Maier continued, “Even after Syria and Afghanistan, people can now be returned again. In Thuringia, we have increased the number of deportations by 50 percent compared to the previous year. This shows that it is possible.