German city at centre of tug of war over immigration, refugees

Fatal stabbing by Syrian refugee becomes political fodder for far-right party AfD

Two days after a deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen, the youth wing of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party put out a call for supporters to stage a protest demanding that the government do more to deport migrants denied asylum.

The authorities had identified the suspect in the stabbing spree that killed three people and wounded eight others as a Syrian man who was in the country despite having been denied asylum, and who prosecutors suspected had joined the Islamic State terror group.

The attack tore at the fabric of the ethnically diverse, workingclass city in the country's west.

But even before the right-wing protests had begun on Aug 25, scores of counter-protesters had gathered in front of the group home that housed the suspect and other refugees.

They carried banners that read "Welcome to refugees" and "Fascism is not an opinion, but a crime", and railed against those who would use the attack to further inflame an already fraught national debate over immigration and refugees.

The duelling protests - not unlike those recently in Britain – are emblematic of Germany's longstanding tug of war over how to deal with a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years. The country needs immigration to bolster its workforce, but the government often finds itself on the defensive against an increasingly powerful AfD.

The party and its supporters are attempting to use the stabbing attack to bolster their broader antiimmigrant message, with some blaming the assault on "uncontrolled migration" even before the nationality of the suspect was known.

"They are trying to use this tragedy to foment fear," said Mr Matthias Marsch, 67, a Solingen resident who was at the counter-protest on Aug 25 and worries about a rightward drift in society. "I'm here to stand against that."