Ministers in German state criticise Angela Merkel’s open borders policy on refugees, saying it can no longer be tolerated

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Authorities in Bavaria have pledged to increase controls on migrants and recruit thousands of extra police in a package of security measures following a string of attacks.

After a week in which the southern German state was the setting for an axe attack on a train, a mass shooting and a suicide bombing, the minister president of Bavaria, Horst Seehofer, said it was “finally time to address people’s fears”.

“People are scared, completely understandably, and right now they need a credible answer from politicians,” he said.

Seehofer criticised the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her administration for “dodging the issue”, accusing the federal government of seeking to play down the problems stemming from her open door policy towards refugees. “I won’t listen any more,” he said.

The “policy of open borders cannot be tolerated any more,” Seehofer said, given that terrorists were “using the [refugee] routes to enter Germany”.

The perpetrators of the axe attack in Würzburg and the suicide bombing in Ansbach were refugees – one whose identity remains unclear, and Mohammad Daleel, a 27-year-old Syrian. However, both had arrived in Germany before Merkel announced that people fleeing war zones would not be turned away.



The mass shooting in Munich was carried out by Ali David Sonboly, 18, who was born in the city to Iranian parents. A 16-year-old Afghan boy, who is being questioned by police, is alleged to have been his accomplice.

Germany was also shocked by a machete attack on Sunday in Reutlingen, in the state of Baden-Württemberg , in which a 21-year-old Syrian man hacked to death a pregnant Polish woman in an apparent domestic dispute.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Seehofer, Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said he would push to allow the German army to be deployed within the country in case of future attacks.

“It can’t replace the police, but why can’t well-trained members of the army work alongside the police in the event of an attack?” he asked.

The politicians called for German police to be better equipped to tackle terror attacks, including providing them with bulletproof helmets and increasing resources to tackle online radicalisation.

Sonboly is believed to have purchased the Glock 17 pistol with which he carried out the killings on the dark web.

Herrmann said he was shocked to find that Daleel had, under the nose of the authorities, built the bomb that he used to blow himself up in front of a music festival on Sunday night.



“That someone who is living in state-financed accomodation should be able to gather unnoticed enough material to build a bomb ... That simply undermines what my understanding of security is,” he said, adding that measures would be taken to ensure regular searches of refugee accommodation in future.

Deportations of refugees, even to war zones if they have committed criminal offences, should be made easier, Herrmann said.

He said he failed to understand why authorities had not deported Daleel to Bulgaria, which was responsible for processing his asylum application. The fact that he had slashed his wrists on two occasions and was deemed medically unfit to travel was an inadequate reason to have kept him in Germany, Herrmann said.

No refugee should be allowed into Germany if they cannot prove their identity, he added. People arriving without papers should be held at the border until their personal details can be established, the minister said.

Other moves being considered across Germany include a ban on rucksacks at public events, as well as the recruitment of civilian army reservists, similar to the British army reserve or the US national guard, to support the police.

Fears over further attacks were raised on Tuesday when police were called to a campus of the Charité hospital in Berlin after a 55-year-old dental surgeon was shot and killed by one of his patients. Berlin police said there was nothing to indicate that the attack had an extremist motive.

