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Germany stands with France in face of terror

Germany stands united with France against "terror's blind hate" and in defence of "free society", Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after a deadly attack Friday at a factory near Lyon.

Published: 26 June 2015 14:08 CEST
Germany stands with France in face of terror
President Francois Hollande during a press conference about the attacks on Friday (l) and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Photos: DPA

Germany and Spain condemned Friday's deadly suspected Islamist attack on a gas factory in their neighbour France, branding it “heinous” and vowing to stay united against “barbarism”.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the victims' families and see ourselves as united with France in defence of our free society against terror's blind hate,” Steinmeier said in a statement.

The foreign minister said he was appalled by the “shocking news of a heinous murder and an assault with several injured”.

LIVE: Man decapitated in terror attack in France

He called it an “act of terror and fanaticism which we condemn in the strongest terms”.

Meanwhile, Peter Altmaier, the head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, tweeted in French that the attack “recalls once again European common values,” and offered “all solidarity and our condolences”.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said that investigators from Germany's Federal Police (Bundeskriminalamt) were already in “close co-operation” with their colleagues in France, the Saarbrücker Zeitung reported.

“I firmly condemn the attack carried out in Lyon. Barbarism will always be confronted by unity among democrats. #Spain with #France,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy wrote in a message on Twitter.

A severed head was pinned to the gate of the factory near Lyon in southwestern France during what French President Francois Hollande described as a “terrorist attack”.

Several other people were also injured in the attack, in which a suspect set off several small explosive devices, sources close to the investigation said.

The suspect arrested in connection with the attack was investigated nine years ago for radicalization and has links to the Salafist movement, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said later.

The killing came nearly six months after the Islamist attacks in and around Paris that killed 17 people in January, starting with a shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

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LIVE: Man decapitated in terror attack in France

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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