Article content continued

Joerg Meuthen, a co-leader of the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, argued Sunday that Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel bear “a decisive share of the responsibility for this cruel act and many other ‘isolated cases’ that have happened daily in Germany since the unhindered entry of illegal immigrants.”

The party rose in polls following last year’s migrant influx and hopes to enter the national Parliament in an election next year in which Merkel is seeking a fourth term.

“We must not allow this abhorrent act to be abused for rabble-rousing and conspiracy propaganda,” Gabriel told Monday’s edition of the Bild daily. “It is clear to everyone that refugees can commit equally terrible crimes as people born in Germany.”

Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, condemned the “appalling crime” and said that “the perpetrator must be punished with the full force of our laws.”

“But we must not forget that we are talking about a possible act by one Afghan refugee, not a whole group of people who, like him, are Afghans and refugees,” he told reporters in Berlin.

While many Germans have welcomed refugees, there has been strong opposition from a vocal minority. A string of sexual assaults and robberies on New Year’s Eve in Cologne blamed primarily on foreigners also fed fears.

One of Germany’s public television stations, ARD, drew criticism for not featuring the Freiburg arrest in its evening news bulletin Saturday, the day it was announced. The broadcaster said in a blog that it hadn’t considered the case to rise above other killings to be “nationally and internationally relevant.”