Solingen memorial: German president urges migration control

Top German officials, including President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, attended a memorial ceremony in the western city of Solingen on Sunday, over a week after three people were killed and eight more injured in a suspected terror attack.

Police have detained a Syrian national with alleged ties to the "Islamic State" militia over the stabbing rampage. The 26-year-old apparently entered the EU in Bulgaria in 2022 as an asylum-seeker.

Speaking in Solingen, Steinmeier said that the deadly attack at a diversity festival was aimed at Germany's "core" as a tolerant country.

"It strikes at our national identity as a nation in which people live together peacefully despite all differences, and want to live together — people who have lived here for generations as well as those who have arrived later," Steinmeier said.

Many have criticized Germany's migration policies following the Solingen attack.

Steinmeier wants 'nationwide effort' to enforce immigration rules

The president said Germany was the country that takes people in "with good reason" if they seek asylum from political prosecution and war.

"We want to stay this country," Steinmeier told around 450 mourners gathered on Sunday.

"And we can ultimately only remain this country if we are not overwhelmed by the number of people who come without being entitled to this special protection."

Germany's population will continue to be accepting of asylum policies only if "those seeking protection abide by the law and order of our country," Steinmeier said.

He urged both the ruling and the opposition parties to help enforce existing immigration laws and the laws that are currently being created.

"This requires a nationwide effort, this is what I expect and that is what the people of Germany expect," the president said.

Scholz says Germany must 'draw lessons from the attack'

In Germany, the president has a mainly ceremonial role while executive power rests with the chancellor. In the wake of the Solingen attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised to tighten knife laws, heighten security and organize high-level consultations aimed at reducing "irregular migration."

Even so, the Solingen attack is likely to buoy far-right parties, especially at the ongoing state elections in Saxony and Thuringia.

On Sunday, Scholz posted on X that he was grieving the dead in Solingen "with their families, with everyone in this city, with everyone in Germany."

"The crime strikes at our heart, it angers us," he wrote. "We owe it to [the victims] and their families to draw lessons from it."

dj/nm (DPA, KNA)