Wednesday’s bloody rampage in Hanau town near Frankfurt by a suspected far-right extremist has heightened concerns over recurrent hate crimes in Germany, home to the largest number of immigrants from the recent refugee crisis. Authorities have established the gunman’s extreme xenophobic beliefs using online evidence, where the 43-year-old attacker had advocated the elimination of people across continents. Crucial to investigators is the similarity of the lethal weapon wielded on Wednesday to that used in the 2016 Munich mall shootings. The latest violence must awaken those who take the complacent view that the threat from the far-right is concentrated in Germany’s eastern regions. But the recent political developments in Thuringia State have exposed divisions within the CDU on the approach to ward off the threat from the far-right.

Source: The Hindu February 21, 2020 19:30 UTC