(AFP) Germany’s far-right AfD party on Monday held what it called a “memorial” rally for victims of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market that has newly inflamed debate on migrant and security policy.
Meanwhile, an anti-extremist initiative called “Don’t Give Hate a Chance” was gathering nearby in the eastern city of Magdeburg, which was mourning five dead and more than 200 injured in Friday’s carnage.
“Terror has arrived in our city,” said the AfD’s leader in Saxony-Anhalt state, Jan Wenzel Schmidt, condemning what he labelled the “monstrous political failure” that led up to the attack, over which a Saudi man was arrested.
“We must close the borders,” he told hundreds of supporters of the anti-immigration party. “We can no longer take in madmen from all over the world.”
