Magdeburg was shrouded in sadness since an attack in which a nine-year-old boy and four women were killed at a Christmas market on Friday evening.
About 200 people were also injured when a man rammed a car into the busy market in the eastern German city.
The suspect, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi-born psychiatrist who has lived in Germany since 2006, is charged with murder and attempted murder.
Political parties across the spectrum have expressed sadness over the victims and vowed to increase security.
In a statement shared with Al Jazeera, Green Party leader Robert Habeck said he wished the city “comfort, strength and confidence.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the incident a “terrible and crazy” act.
Nicole Anger, MP and co-chair of the Die Linke party in Magdeburg, said things remained calm in the city and people were still stunned.
“There are candlelight vigils, church services and just lots of moments when people stand together in solidarity. Vendors at the Christmas market, which is closed for the rest of the year, give away free fruits and vegetables,” she told Al Jazeera.
But while many are united in grief, tensions are rising.
In addition to vigils, more than 2,000 right-wing extremist supporters gathered in the city on Saturday with banners and chanting anti-migration slogans.
More rallies are reportedly planned for Monday.
Anger, who was born and raised in Magdeburg, said the atmosphere reminded her of the mid-1990s, when a man was killed after far-right agitators chased a group of black men through the city in what was known as the Magdeburg Ascension Riots.
“At the moment, children and people with a migrant background are afraid to go out on the streets,” she said.
The attack came as Germans prepared to end a heated political year.
According to the coalition led by Scholz collapsed In November, the Chancellor lost a vote of confidence in mid-December, which led to early elections.
Germans will go to the polls on February 23rd.
Meanwhile, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party continues to gain political ground following successes in state elections this year.
The day before the attack, US billionaire Elon Musk sparked controversy when he posted on the social media platform he owns: “Only the AfD can save Germany.”
Observers described a sense of fear and concern and said blame over the Magdeburg attack could distract from the main issues facing German voters.
“We still have to be very careful about what the attacker’s true motives were. “But it is obvious that if there is an extremist force in the political discourse that is actually not just Islamophobic but generally xenophobic, if it is articulated as strongly as the AfD constantly does, it will seep through,” he told Justus by Daniels, editor of the German publication Correctiv, which is published in January broke news of a meeting between the AfD and neo-Nazi activists to discuss a “master plan” for deporting migrants.
He said it would be instructive to see how Germany now proceeds in terms of increasing security.
In the run-up to the elections, political parties should avoid playing into the AfD’s anti-immigrant narrative and focus on issues that affect the electorate, von Daniels said.
“The Business is a big part of this election, and a case like Magdeburg shifts the public discourse to migration issues. If the AfD tries to push the migration issue further, I fear that the other political parties will react to it, and that is not healthy for the political debate.”
The suspect and his possible motives are puzzling authorities and the public.
Al-Abdulmohsen described himself on social media as a former Muslim activist. His posts showed contempt for Islam and support for right-wing ideologies. He said he supported women fleeing Saudi Arabia, but a Correctiv journalist who was in contact with him did so challenged This claim was blocked by several women because of his “problematic” behavior. Some claimed they felt sexually harassed by him.
Saudi Arabia said it warned Germany about the doctor in November 2023. Germany admitted receiving the tip-off, but ultimately concluded that al-Abdulmohsen posed no threat at the time.
Tahir Abbas, a professor of Islamophobia and political violence at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said the suspect appeared to have become “something of a fan of populist ethno-nationalist ideals.”
“I think this leads to the motivations of this particular perpetrator being more broadly aligned with far-right practices and ideologies, including in relation to the treatment of women,” he said.
“The far right is currently so hyper-normalized across Europe and North America that enormous challenges have arisen and will continue to arise, especially if President Donald Trump takes the helm in the US again.”
The suspect made it clear on social media that he admires Europe’s far-right leaders such as Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Observers said that since the attack, the far right in Germany and across Europe have been quick to weaponize the attack to advance their anti-migrant agenda.
Jorinde Schulz, activist and member of the Die Linke party, said the “extreme right is allowed to mobilize almost unhindered.”
“For them, this attack is a stepping stone to gaining more support, which is all the more disturbing since they are the ones attacking people of color in the streets and intimidating political activists.”
On Sunday, police in Bremerhaven, a port city in northern Germany, arrested a man who used TikTok to threaten violence. The man is said to have warned that he would stab anyone of Arab appearance in the city on Christmas Day, the German news agency dpa reported.
