How fake Magdeburg attack news is spreading ahead of German elections

Weeks after a car was rammed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six and injuring more than 200 others, false claims about the attack are still being shared by internet users and politicians alike.

One video for example has been shared with a caption saying that German police arrested Muslim extremists who support terrorism, the day after the attack which saw a Saudi-born doctor plough into civilians. 

It shows Berlin Police officers chasing after and arresting several people at Berlin Central Train Station.

However, the video has already been community-noted, explaining that the video was shot on 20 December, a day before the attack in Magdeburg, and that it shows officers arresting participants at a pro-Palestine demonstration.

The police have also since publicly confirmed that this was the case.

In many instances, false claims about the attack have also been disseminated in the context of Germany’s upcoming federal elections, seemingly in an effort to politicise the incident.

Certain politicians have been at the centre, such as Alice Weidel, co-chair of the far-right AfD party, who alleged that the perpetrator was an “Islamist filled with hatred”.

“Dear friends, we are gathered here, one day before Christmas Eve to remember the victims of an act of madness,” she said at a vigil for victims of the attack on 23 December. “An act beyond the imagination of all present. An act by an Islamist full of hatred for what constitutes human cohesion. On us humans. On us Germans. On us Christians.”

Since the attack, the issues of immigration and security have become an even bigger election talking point than they were before. This is reflected by the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Germany’s largest opposition party, recently announcing in its manifesto that it would push for a much more hardline immigration policy.

However, officials say that Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen is an “atypical attacker”, and he’s previously described himself as an aggressive critic of Islam while also expressing support for AfD. 

No motive has been established yet for why the suspect drove into the crowd, but it’s been revealed that he has been sharing Islamophobic views online for years. 

German media identified an account on X, allegedly linked to the suspect, with a handle saying, “Saudi Military Opposition • Germany chases female Saudi asylum seekers, inside and outside Germany, to destroy their lives • Germany wants to Islamise Europe”.

In a 2019 FAZ interview, Al-Abdulmohsen described himself as “the most aggressive critic of Islam in history”. Elsewhere, he said that AfD pursued the same goals that he did.

The party has distanced itself from the suspected attacker, assuring it has nothing to do with him.

Nevertheless, some are still using the incident to push their own political agenda.

ADVERTISEMENT

Another image going around online allegedly depicts Social Democratic MP Saskia Esken speaking out against the deportation of the attacker and calling for him to be forgiven on political talk show Lanz.

“Are you really so cold-hearted, so callous, to put the welfare of the perpetrator above the suffering of the victims?” a post that shares the images says.

But fact-checkers have already debunked this: a community note shows that the timeline doesn’t add up for when Esken allegedly made the comments and when the attack took place.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of other examples of this: Green politician Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg, was also wrongly accused of urging people to “forgive the perpetrator”, according to German fact-checkers.

ADVERTISEMENT

Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier meanwhile was accused of claiming on X that the attacker was a right-wing radical who society had failed to integrate. In fact, those words came from a parody account.

As Germany’s elections approach, it’s crucial that citizens are correctly informed before they cast their votes.