During the election campaign, Friedrich Merz promised 'migration turnaround' and security. After the attack in Aschaffenburg, he vowed firm action: deportations and detention for dangerous individuals. However, following the recent terrorist stabbing in Bielefeld, the new chancellor has remained silent, while Germans are so fed up with migrants that open hostility toward them is surging. Some groups even resort to physical attacks against migrants.

Since taking office, there has been widespread uncertainty about what exactly German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt’s (CSU) directive to tighten border controls and reject more people really means — which asylum seekers will be turned away and on what grounds, and which will not. The Merz and his government remaining silent on the Bielefeld knife attack has led many Germans to question whether the so-called ‘migration turnaround’ is truly a priority.

„I refuse to accept that these attacks in Mannheim, Solingen, Magdeburg and now Aschaffenburg are the new normal in Germany. Enough is enough. We are faced with the shambles of an asylum and immigration policy that has been misguided Germany for 10 years,”

Merz said somberly on January 23, just one month before federal parliamentary elections and shortly after the Aschaffenburg attack. His statement was followed by the presentation of the so-called five-point plan and a joint vote by the CDU/CSU, FDP, and AfD.

Bielefeld may soon be added to the list of attacks and terrorist incidents that Merz cited above. The only difference is that in Bielefeld, no one died, and the two young victims who sustained life-threatening injuries in the stabbing outside the „Cutie” bar have since begun to recover.

The attacker, Mahmoud Mehmed, who indiscriminately stabbed into the celebrating crowd, had ties to Islamists and known dangerous individuals. His housemates said he declared he wanted to „fight for the Islamic State”. Reportedly, Mehmed frequently spoke about terrorism and killing.

Federal prosecutors have launched an investigation into the 35-year-old Syrian national, who is now suspected of attempted murder. The prosecutors described the act as an attack against German democracy likely motivated by religion.

Über den Anschlag auf feiernde Fußballfans durch einen Syrer in Bielefeld wurde in der reichweitenstarken ZDF heute 19 Uhr Ausgabe nur 19 Sekunden berichtet. #OerrBlog pic.twitter.com/i0EItIcm9J

— ÖRR Blog. (@OERRBlog) May 20, 2025

The German Federal Government Remains Silent
Neither Chancellor Friedrich Merz, nor Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, nor Jens Spahn, parliamentary group leader of the CDU/CSU, nor the SPD, nor even Hendrik Wust (CDU), the prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, responded with a public statement on the day of the knife terror attack – exxpress.at. reported.

In Germany Situation Is Increasingly Alarming – Germans Fed Up with Migrants
A few days after the terrorist attack, German authorities arrested five minors, suspected of forming a far-right terrorist group. The charges include attempted murder and serious property damage. These arrests follow three similar earlier cases involving attacks on a community center in Brandenburg back in October and an assault on a migrant accommodation in Saxony in January.

According to federal prosecutors, the suspects are underage boys who formed a group calling itself “the last wave of defense for the German nation.”

Authorities released the first names and initials of the suspects, all of whom are German, but only disclosed that they were minors at the time of the offenses. Prosecutors stated the group’s main goal was to carry out violent acts against migrants in order to trigger the collapse of the German democratic system.

A planned arson attack on a migrant shelter in Brandenburg was prevented thanks to the deployment of over 220 police officers and searches conducted across five federal states,

according to Reuters.

German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig expressed concern about the young age of the suspects.

“We need policies that prevent radicalization, especially among the youth,”

she said.

According to a report from the Ministry of the Interior Tuesday, politically motivated crimes rose by approximately 40% last year, with a particularly sharp increase in far-right violence.

A series of attacks committed by migrants has further fueled public resentment, contributing to a rise in support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Mehmed M., der Täter von Bielefeld, konnte die Tat nur begehen, weil er an der Grenze nicht zurückgewiesen wurde. Statt ihn dann auszuweisen, erteilte man ihm befristetes Bleiberecht. Als AfD fordern wir die strikte Einhaltung geltenden Rechts – um solche Taten zu verhindern. pic.twitter.com/oOftCQMBFU

— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) May 21, 2025