Christmas market canceled - terror threat too great

So-called diversity barriers, often in the form of large boulders intended to prevent or at least complicate a vehicular attack, are not enough in the German city of Magdeburg. As security cannot be guaranteed and the terror threat is deemed too great, there will be no Christmas market at all this year.

It is after last year’s terror attack in December, where six people were killed, that this year’s traditional Christmas market is being canceled. According to the city’s mayor, Simone Borris, the market will not be permitted to operate this year due to security issues.

According to the German news agency DPA, Borris decided to cancel this year’s market after receiving a letter from state officials warning of inadequate security measures such as barriers to stop cars from entering the area. Borris suggested that it was not her city’s responsibility to implement stricter security measures, but rather the task of the counter-terrorism police and the state government of Saxony-Anhalt.

“All experts agree that concrete measures against terrorism are a state responsibility and that the organizer of a Christmas market cannot be held responsible for this,” said Borris after an emergency meeting about the market.

The news comes as a hard blow in Germany, where Christmas markets are a beloved annual tradition. Magdeburg’s market is the largest in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt with over two million visitors.

Flowers after last year’s attack. Photo: Roy Zuo, CC BY-SA 4.0

Came as a refugee

Suspected for last year’s vehicular attack is Saudi Arabian Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, who came to Germany in 2006. In addition to the six dead, he is also accused of attempting to murder another 338 people and injuring 309 during the attack.

“I don’t want other foreigners to be disadvantaged because of what I did,” said the accused in court.

The state’s Ministry of the Interior confirmed that a vehicle, intended to serve as a “mobile barrier,” was parked a distance from the market, which allowed Abdulmohsen to carry out the attack.

According to German law, all Christmas markets must have road obstacles of concrete and steel to prevent terrorist attacks after a vehicular attack in Berlin in 2016 that killed 13 people.