Angry Olaf Scholz vows to tighten gun laws after Solingen attack

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised to rapidly tighten gun laws in response to a deadly knife attack that left three people dead during his visit to Solingen. “This must happen and will happen very quickly,” Scholz said during his visit to the North Rhine-Westphalia city this Monday. Scholz was confident that a proposal from the federal government could be quickly approved by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.

However, the question the attack has raised in the debate on migration and asylum is whether tightening the rules and Interior Minister Nancy Fesser’s proposal two weeks ago to reduce knife blades from 12 to 6 centimetres will be enough to prevent future knife attacks.

“This is terrorism, terrorism against all of us”a visibly emotional chancellor said. “This is something we will never tolerate, something we will never accept,” he said after laying a wreath at the site of the tragedy. He also declared himself “outraged” and “enraged” at the act of violence committed by a 26-year-old Syrian refugee during the city’s founding ceremony last Friday.

Amid the heated debate sparked by that attack, Scholz has shown himself willing to accelerate the deportations even further. With legal regulations if necessary and “some things can only be regulated on the basis of European law,” he highlighted in reference to the deportations carried out under the umbrella of Dublin, the set of rules that govern the EU in asylum policy. And, according to which, an asylum seeker must present his claim in the country of entry. In the case of the Solingen terrorist it was Bulgaria and he should have been expelled from there last year.

Following his visit to Solingen, Scholz appeared before the press accompanied by Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia Hendrik Wüst, Rhineland Interior Minister Herbert Rühl and Solingen Mayor Tim Kurzbach.

This was not the time to show differences in asylum policy, but Wüst, one of the stalwarts of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), called for concrete results in asylum and security policy. “Advertising alone will not be enough,” For Wüst and the CDU as a whole, “the question is whether people who do not have a permanent right to stay here should be able to leave this country more easily, or preferably not come at all.” The CDU already has a voice against the acceptance of asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan.

Wüst also spoke of a strong fight against Islamic terror: “This free society cannot be overthrown, but it must also be able to defend itself at an appropriate level for this challenge. It is therefore necessary to debate whether the authorities are adequately equipped.”

Solingen Mayor Kurzbach asked that further discussions not be held behind the city’s back. “Let’s calm down,” he asked after the meeting with Scholz and Wüst. “It’s not just about Solingen: it’s about our country”,

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