Summary of the day
Germany has deported Afghan nationals today back to their home country for the first time since August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.
The move comes as eyes are on Thuringia and Saxony, where voters will go to the polls for state elections on Sunday.
The far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling in first place in Thuringia.
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said the return of 28 Afghans is “a clear sign that those who commit crimes cannot count on us not deporting them, but that we will look for ways to do so”.
Germany will not take steps towards the normalisation of its relations with the Taliban, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The leader of a breakaway populist leftwing party, Sahra Wagenknecht, was sprayed with pink paint while campaigning in Thuringia on Thursday.
The Guardian will be live blogging election results and reactions on Sunday evening. Stay tuned.
The German politician Sahra Wagenknecht was sprayed with a red liquid, thought to be paint, at a campaign event in the eastern city of Erfurt. Watch footage of the incident:
Green party co-leader Omid Nouripour welcomed the expulsion of serious criminals from Germany, but said it did not signal the start of large-scale deportations to Afghanistan, AFP reported.
“Law-abiding people, especially families and children who have fled from radical Islamists” are protected in Germany, he said.
The leader of a breakaway populist leftwing party in Germany, Sahra Wagenknecht, has been sprayed with pink paint while campaigning in elections in the eastern state of Thuringia.
Wagenknecht, a former high-profile member of the far-left party Die Linke, who this year founded the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), was attacked on stage on Thursday as she prepared to address crowds in Erfurt. She ducked as a man approached the stage and spattered paint in her direction, which hit her dress and face.
The attack took place before key votes on Sunday in the two eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony.
The man’s motive remained unclear, and he did not react when he was removed from the scene.
Witnesses said the alleged attacker, identified later as a 50-year-old man, appeared to shouted “Ukraini” or “Ukrainia” as he stood in front of the stage. Some said he used a medical syringe to spray the paint, which was described by a BSW aide as “very hard to remove”.
Wagenknecht, known for her pro-Russia stance, has said she would seek to end military support for Ukraine and would push for a far tighter immigration policy.
She has also campaigned to prevent the planned stationing of US missiles on German soil.
As elsewhere, the rise of anti-establishment parties are complicating coalition-building and governability in German states, Reuters reports.
“Everything has gone wrong with the established parties: we need a new direction,” said Thomas Leser, who was in the audience at a Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) rally in Suhl in Thuringia.
BSW combines social conservatism and far-left economics, and could end up in kingmaker position.
Here are some of the latest images from the campaign trail.
Olaf Scholz has spoken about the deportation of 28 Afghan nationals who have been returned to their homeland.
The chancellor, speaking near Leipzig during a local election campaign event on Friday, called it “a clear sign that those who commit crimes cannot count on us not deporting them, but that we will look for ways to do so”.
Earlier, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit described those deported as convicted criminals but Associated Press said he did not immediately respond to a request for comment to clarify their offences.
Julia Duchrow, secretary general of Amnesty International in Germany, has blasted the deportations, saying the government bowed to political pressure during an election campaign.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is predicted to come first in at least one of two elections in eastern states on Sunday.
Reuters reports that its success would pile pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition over the economy, immigration and support for Ukraine.
The 11-year-old AfD, which has greater support in the formerly communist-run east, will be unlikely to be able to form a state government even if it does win, as it is polling short of a majority and other parties refuse to collaborate with it.
But it will be the first time a far-right party has the most seats in a German state parliament since World War Two and its strength will complicate coalition building and could allow it to block constitutional changes and appointments of some judges.
The AfD is polling 30% in Thuringia, nearly 10 points ahead of the conservatives in second place, while tying with them in Saxony on around 30-32%. The newly-created far-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is set to come third in both states.
My colleague Deborah Cole has written a preview of this weekend’s elections in Saxony and Thuringia, looking at how the far-right AfD and the alliance founded by Sahra Wagenknecht – the politician who was attacked with liquid on Thursday – could spell an upheaval of the political landscape in Germany. You can read the full piece here:
Updated
The DPA news agency reports that German security authorities have warned of “unconventional incendiary devices” sent via freight service providers.
#BREAKING German security authorities are warning of "unconventional incendiary devices" being sent via freight service providers after several incidents in which parcels sent by private individuals across Europe caught fire while in transit. pic.twitter.com/b554NCciDf
— dpa news agency (@dpa_intl) August 30, 2024
Berlin will not take steps towards normalisation with Taliban, spokesperson says
Germany will not take steps towards the normalisation of its relations with the Taliban, a foreign ministry spokesperson said today, Reuters reported.
The German authorities have deported Afghan nationals back to their home country for the first time since August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.
“As long as the general conditions are as they are and the Taliban behave the way they do, there will be no effort to normalise relations with the Taliban,” the spokesperson said.
“There are contacts on a technical level, especially through our representative office in Doha,” the spokesperson said.
Sahra Wagenknecht was sprayed with a red liquid during a campaign event yesterday in Erfurt.
A man was immediately pushed to the ground by security forces and taken away, the Associated Press reported.
Wagenknecht, a high-profile politician who left the far-left Die Linke and set up her own party, wrote on the social media that she was scared but fine.
Her eight-month-old party, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance), blends scepticism about migration, opposition to Nato, backing for high taxes on the rich and resistance to military aid for Ukraine.
Polls indicate the BSW could find itself in the role of kingmaker in German states holding elections this month.
Updated
Amnesty International’s Germany office has responded to the deportation of Afghan nationals to their home country, writing that no one is safe in Afghanistan.
Rechtsstaat heißt auch, sich ans Völkerrecht zu halten. Außergerichtliche Hinrichtungen, Verschwindenlassen & Folter sind in #Afghanistan an der Tagesordnung. Niemand ist dort sicher. Schiebt die Bundesregierung trotzdem ab, riskiert sie, sich zur Komplizin der Taliban zu machen https://t.co/djULQwL1sR
— Amnesty Deutschland (@amnesty_de) August 30, 2024
In Saxony, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is in the lead, according to the latest opinion poll.
Sonntagsfrage zur Landtagswahl in Sachsen • Forschungsgruppe Wahlen / ZDF: CDU 33 % | AfD 30 % | BSW 12 % | GRÜNE 6 % | SPD 6 % | DIE LINKE 4 % | Sonstige 9 %
— Wahlrecht.de (@Wahlrecht_de) August 29, 2024
➤ Verlauf: https://t.co/keFLfal1Fl
🗓️Nächste Landtagswahl: 1. September 2024#ltwsn #ltwsn24 pic.twitter.com/7YHlncS1Uw
Ahead of elections this weekend, the far-right AfD is leading in Thuringia, according to the latest opinion polling.
Sonntagsfrage zur Landtagswahl in Thüringen • FG Wahlen / ZDF: AfD 29 % | CDU 23 % | BSW 18 % | DIE LINKE 13 % | SPD 6 % | GRÜNE 4 % | Sonstige 7 %
— Wahlrecht.de (@Wahlrecht_de) August 29, 2024
➤ Verlauf: https://t.co/ovEBl1I3iB
🗓 Nächste Landtagswahl: 1. September 2024#ltwth #ltwth24 pic.twitter.com/R3U8IjqqTG
Germany to harden weapons laws and asylum rules after Solingen stabbing
Germany’s fractious coalition government announced on Thursday a hard-fought compromise on changes to weapons laws and asylum rules designed to prevent Islamist attacks such as last Friday’s mass stabbing that left three people dead.
Days before key state elections in which each of the ruling parties risk heavy losses to the far right, government ministers said the knife rampage allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker at a street festival in the western city of Solingen had exposed critical weaknesses in the country’s immigration and security policy.
“The Solingen attack shook us to our core and we said that we as a government would react to it with tough measures,” said the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat.
She said the government would ban the carrying of knives at public events including street festivals like the scene of the Solingen attack, and on long-distance public transportation such as trains and buses.
Federal police will be given the power to impose spot checks for weapons including long knives in “heavy crime” areas such as railway stations. Police officers will be able to use stun guns to stop violent suspects.
The measures also call for the swifter deportation of refused asylum seekers and the removal of financial benefits for those who have already been registered in another EU member country.
Germany deports Afghan nationals for first time since 2021 as key state elections loom
Germany has deported Afghan nationals today back to their home country for the first time since August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power.
28 people were deported.
Steffen Hebestreit, the German government spokesperson, described the Afghan nationals as convicted criminals, the Associated Press reported.
The deportations came a week after a deadly knife attack in Solingen where the suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum and reportedly disappeared and avoided deportation.
Germany does not have diplomatic relations with the Taliban.
The move to resume the return of Afghans comes ahead of closely-watched elections on Sunday in Saxony and Thuringia.
Updated
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