Merkel refugee policy in focus after Hamburg attack

Bloomberg

An attack in the northern city of Hamburg thrust Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy into the spotlight less than two months before Germany goes to the polls.
Police were aware that the man suspected of a stabbing spree on Friday had shown of signs radicalization, Hamburg’s interior minister, Andy Grote, said in a press conference on Saturday. The attack in a supermarket in the Barmbek district left one man dead and six injured before bystanders overpowered the attacker.
The 26-year-old suspect is a Palestinian citizen whose request for refugee status had been declined. He had been ordered out of the country but lacked the necessary documents to travel, Grote said, adding that a few hours before the attack the man had inquired whether his documents were ready. The suspect, who had shown signs of mental instability, is now in police custody.
While authorities said they are still unsure of the motives of the attacker, the episode could damage Merkel’s September re-election bid, which is based in part on ensuring public safety. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party was quick to react, even as the Chancellor’s office remained silent. “After Barmbek, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party has lost any credibility on internal security and should stop campaigning on the issue,” AfD’s deputy parliamentary speaker, Beatrix Von Storch, said on Twitter.
CDU Secretary General Peter Tauber said in a tweet that the “background” of the attack must be made clear. “We must take into account that the extremist ideology is used as reason or justification for acts that are perhaps committed for quite different motives,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a member of the CDU party, said in a statement. “The real motives can then also lie in the personality of the attacker.”
Merkel so far has been silent about the attack. Before the attack, support for Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term in the Sept. 24 federal election, was at the highest level since the peak of the refugee crisis nearly two years ago. An Infratest dimap poll for ARD television showed that her CDU-led bloc had 40 percent support, widening the lead over her Social Democrat challengers to 17 percentage points.