Committees in the German Bundestag hold a debate to determine if Magdeburg attack was preventable

Two Bundestag committees have launched a debate into the tragic attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg that killed five people, including a nine-year-old boy on 20 December.

Members of the German parliament held the debate to determine whether the death drive at the Christmas Market was preventable.

The Committee on Internal Affairs in the Bundestag called for the session as it wanted to clarify whether relevant authorities made mistakes in securing the parameters and ensuring the public’s safety.

Many high-profile German politicians, including Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, attended the meeting. The heads of the country’s intelligence service, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees also attended the session.

Faeser said that the country desperately needs to strengthen its internal security. The Interior Minister stressed that more staff are needed across the board.

Faeser proposed a draft budget for 2025, with provisions entailing a need for 1,000 additional police officers for Germany’s federal police forces, as well as €1 billion more in budgets for security authorities.

"After the terrible attack in Solingen, we drew comprehensive consequences with the federal government's security package. Now we will do everything we can to learn the right lessons from it,” said Faeser at the press briefing following the debate.

“To do this, we first need to continue with the investigations, but at the same time it was absolutely clear even before this terrible act that we needed to strengthen our security authorities. Our security authorities need all the necessary powers and more staff.”

"Today is the beginning. This cannot be the end of the investigation, but it must become clear that every stone must be turned over at state and federal level so that this crime can be solved and attributed,” said Sebastian Hartmann, MP in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group.

Other MPs in Germany’s opposition were harsher in their comments. Andrea Lindholz, member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the opposition said “Who exactly was the perpetrator? What is known about him, who came to Germany in 2006 and allegedly or actually trained as a specialist in psychiatry and also worked here. At the same time, however, he threatened several employees of the medical association authorities and at least two criminal proceedings with low-level convictions have been brought against him.”

The tragic incident increases domestic turmoil in Germany. Earlier this month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote, collapsing his government and bringing about snap elections, which German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced would be held on 23 February.

Germany has suffered several extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

The Magdeburg attack comes eight years after a violent Islamist extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others.