Berlin Attack Will ‘Radicalise the German Public’, Says Merkel Ally

An MP in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said Monday’s terror attack in Berlin will “radicalise the German public” and “create a feeling of insecurity”.

Speaking to BBC Radio Four’s The World Tonight, Roderich Kiesewetter said anti-mass immigration politicians would try to “profit” from the attack on a Christmas market in the German capital, adding that the government will have to “explain” the attack to the public.

“Incidents like [the Christmas market attack] will create a feeling of insecurity in Germany,” he said, adding: “So-called right-wing Alternative for Germany will make profit [from] this, and it will radicalise the German public, and we will have a lot of work [to do] to explain it to our public.”

He said the German government would have to “calm down” the public and that the country needed better intelligence to combat terrorism.

A recently-arrived Pakistani migrant has been arrested after allegedly driving a truck into the crowded Christmas market Monday evening.

The attack has already provoked anger against Angela Merkel, who last year allowed over a million migrants to enter the country. Speaking Tuesday morning, she said: “I know that it would be especially hard for us to bear if someone who had asked for refuge and asylum turned out to have done this.”

One senior politician in Alternative for Germany (AfD) slammed Mrs Merkel’s migrant policy, saying “When will the German state of law strike back? When will this cursed hypocrisy finally stop? These are Merkel’s dead!”

The Christmas market attack is the latest in a serious of terror attacks in Germany this year. In July, an Afghan migrant launched an axe attack on a train in Bavaria, just a month after an Islamist killed one person in a knife attack in Munich.

In July, an asylum seeker also blew himself up in the town of Ansbach, killing himself and injuring 15 others.