In Magdeburg, Alice Weidel says: “He doesn’t belong to us”

At 6 p.m. the ringing of bells cuts through the silence on Magdeburg Cathedral Square. The last speaker of the rally has just concluded with the sentence: “Let us draw strength in the hope that there will be no more tears for little André in heaven.” Now the crowd is silent.

André, this is the nine-year-old boy who was killed by the Magdeburg attacker on Friday evening. He drove an SUV right into the middle of the Christmas market – and thus into the heart of Magdeburg. Five people are dead and over 200 others are injured.

But this is not the normal mourning rally that the AfD is holding three days later. It turned out to be the election campaign event that the largely right-wing extremist party supposedly wanted to avoid.

Colorful glow sticks were distributed for the star guest of the evening. The neon glow is “the right welcome” for federal chairwoman Alice Weidel, it is said from the stage.

Even before Weidel’s appearance, there were shouts of “Alice, Alice.” Your arrival is applauded. During her speech, some shouted “Alice for Germany” – based on a banned Nazi slogan.

But before Alice Weidel can set the tone for the coming election campaign here and now, something still needs to be sorted out. Matthias Büttner, domestic policy spokesman for the state parliamentary group, calls it “a fairy tale of aligned media companies” that the attacker “had something to do with the AfD.” The crowd boos.

Taleb A. lived in Bernburg, south of Magdeburg. Büttner leads the AfD district association there. At no time was there any contact with this man, he says.

A., a Saudi citizen, recognized political refugee and psychiatrist in a prison system, had spread a variety of crude theories on platforms like X for years. In several tweets he also sympathized with the AfD because of its negative attitude towards Islam and migration.

In an interview with a US organization shortly before the crime, A. said: “Governments use mass migration as a means of destabilization.” This is similar to the conspiracy belief about the so-called Great Exchange, to which many in the AfD adhere.

The AfD also changed its strategy because of such statements. While their representatives had hastily claimed on the evening of the crime that it was directly related to migration since 2015, the focus is now on the obvious failure of the authorities. This offers numerous steep assists.

Various authorities are said to have received warnings and information about Taleb A. in recent years: the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Intelligence Service, the Berlin police and those in Saxony-Anhalt. The BKA and LKA were busy with him. He was also sentenced to a fine in 2014 after making threats. Much of this has been uncovered by research by media outlets such as “Welt” and MDR.

The state parliament is opposite the cathedral. A special meeting of the Council of Elders had taken place there shortly before. Saxony-Anhalt’s Interior Minister, Tamara Zieschang (CDU), reported that two threats were addressed to Taleb A. in 2023 and 2024 alone. A third failed.

How could he still work as a doctor? Why was he still in Germany? These are questions that the AfD is asking both in the state parliament and on the cathedral square. Taleb A. is “a person who hates Germany” and should be sent back to “where he came from,” says state parliament member Hans-Thomas Tillschneider. The crowd responded with shouts of “deport.”

A sentence that Justice Minister Franziska Weidinger (CDU) said in the public part of the state parliament hearing also seems at least unfortunate. It’s about the motive of Taleb A. Weidinger says that A. complained about poor treatment of Saudi refugees compared to other refugees in Germany. When this was quoted at the rally, an audience member called for the death penalty.

Weidinger’s statement refers to the suspect’s first interrogation on Saturday. It was made almost in a similar way in a press conference on Saturday afternoon – but with the addition that it was just A’s first statement and that it was neither proven nor complete at this point in time.

But on Cathedral Square, most people seem to be sure that a man from a predominantly Muslim country is not going to kill himself at a German Christmas market in order to protest against supposed Islamization. Oliver Kirchner, leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament, shouts: “Anyone who believes this story can no longer be helped.”

Then it’s Alice Weidel’s turn. The glow sticks glow purple and green towards her. Like all speakers, Weidel speaks at a desk with the AfD logo and a black candle.

Even without reliable information, she calls A. an “Islamist full of hatred.” Friday evening was an “act of madness”. However, Weidel tries to be statesmanlike.

She emphasizes cohesion several times. She connects with the dead André and says that “as a mother of two boys” of a similar age, it is difficult for her to “view the event with the necessary distance.” No attempt to “even begin to explain the crime” could provide any consolation now.

Then Weidel gives pure AfD again. With her own emphasis she shouts: “Anyone who despises everything we stand for, everything we love, doesn’t belong to us.”

The neo-Nazi slogan “If you don’t love Germany, you should leave Germany” echoes in your chorus.

Two days earlier, at the city’s ecumenical memorial service, there had been other sounds here at the cathedral. Regional Bishop Frank Kramer said the city felt “powerlessness, despair, anger.” But he warned: “Don’t open your heart to hate speech and violence, but keep it soft.” Several thousand people listened reverently.

Now at least as many have come again. And the AfD serves the entire triad of emotions, including anger. She uses them for herself.

When Alice Weidel finishes her speech, she stands there for a moment, visibly overwhelmed by the moment, perhaps by the action, perhaps also by the encouragement. Reference has been made several times to the upcoming federal election. Weidel will run as the top candidate.

The AfD has thus fulfilled the criticism in advance. “Magdeburg is mourning – the AfD is opening its federal election campaign,” wrote “Magdeburger Miteinander eV”. The association supports democracy projects.

His employees took part in a human chain near the crime scene on Monday evening. Thousands gather there too. For a moment, Magdeburg seems divided into two parts. Completely different from what a banner claims that AfD MPs carry at the final funeral march. It says: “Grief united.”