by Xinhua Writer Yan Feng
BERLIN, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- A deadly truck attack in downtown Berlin just days before Christmas has posed a serious challenge for the German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, and adds fresh political uncertainty to this major European country hit by refugee issues.
The truck suddenly ploughed through the Breitscheidplatz market, a busy Christmas fair near Berlin's landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, on the evening of Dec. 19, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others.
The notorious Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the rampage in Berlin. Days later, Anis Amri, a Tunisian national suspected of committing the assault, was shot and killed by Italian police in a routine patrol in Milan.
The truck attack followed a series of violent attacks in Germany earlier this year, including a gunfire terrorist attack in July in Munich which left 10 people dead and 16 others injured.
While investigations into the Berlin rampage are still under way to find any accomplices, observers here believe that multiple terrorist attacks are spreading and may eventually have an impact on Germany's national elections scheduled for next fall.
FALL OF BERLIN
"I love Berlin!" said a comfort note among spreading mourning flowers and candles on the roadside near the Breitscheidplatz market.
The market, among some 60 others in the German capital, reopened on Dec. 22. Berliners returned to show their defiance against the fear of terror and prove that terrorism could not stop their tradition.
However, newly installed concrete barriers on the roadside and flowers and candles piled inside and outside the market remind people of what has happened.
With the fall of Berlin in terrorist attacks, Germany is no longer the same, a source familiar with German politics said.
When major terrorist attacks took place in European cities like Brussels, Paris and Nice, it was once hoped that Germany could be somehow immune because of its little involvement in the Middle East conflict and its welcome policy to refugees from the region.
Serial violent incidents this summer, especially the gunfire attack in Munich, had dented the hope. The Berlin truck attack assured Germans that terrorism hits all people without distinction.
MOUNTING PRESSURE ON MERKEL
Merkel condemned the attack as a "cruel and terrible act," vowing that the act will be punished "as hard as our laws require."
The chancellor also expressed regret over the fact that the suspected person was a refugee from Tunisia, although his application for asylum had been rejected by German immigration authorities.
Merkel has been under mounting criticism over her welcome immigration policy, which resulted in an influx of some 900,000 refugees into Germany in 2015 alone.
Although she later rolled back the open policy for Middle East refugees, she had to pay a heavy political price.
Riding on the wave of discontent among Germans over the refugee issue, the far-right Alternative for Germany party keeps gaining grounds in local elections and now has seats in 11 of the country's 16 state legislatures.
When a string of violent incidents occurred in southern Germany this summer, the Merkel government had been cautious to define them as "terrorist attacks" and tried to delink them with the refugee issue.
The fact that a Tunisian asylum seeker carried out the truck attack in Berlin will undoubtedly press the Merkel government to deal with refugee issues in the months to come.
Speaking to reporters on Dec. 23, shortly after the confirmation of Amri's death, Merkel vowed to step up deportation of failed asylum seekers to improve safety in Germany.
The chancellor said she had told Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi in a phone conversation that Germany wanted quicker deportation of Tunisian asylum seekers whose applications had been rejected.
"We have to significantly speed up the deportation process and increased the number of people expelled," Merkel said.
The truck attack on the Christmas market raised many questions, she said, noting that her government would take necessary measures to make the country better secured.
IMPACT ON ELECTIONS
After 11 years of chancellorship, Merkel announced her decision in November to stand for a fourth term as candidate of her party, the Christian Democratic Union, in the national elections next year.
"Her chance to get re-elected is almost certain," said Prof. Gu Xuewu from University of Bonn when asked to comment on Merkel's decision to run for chancellorship next year.
Gu, director for the university's Center for Global Studies, said this was due to the fact there is no serious political challenger for Merkel in the current political landscape in Germany.
But local analysts said that the Berlin terror attack has added more uncertainty to the elections next year.
Nine months are longer enough to digest the political impact of the Berlin attack provided further attack is prevented from now on, they said.
The Merkel government is expected to take a series of measures to make the country secured, including deportation of more refugees whose applications for asylum have been rejected and more steps to beef up security at all levels nationwide.
However, terrorists usually pick up soft targets or public places like a Christmas market, analysts said. It is very difficult to defend potential targets all the time.
This will be a serious challenge for the Merkel government in the months to come.
Geoffrey Harris, a veteran official of the European Parliament, warned that terrorists sometimes choose their timings very well and might try to influence elections in EU countries.
"Terrorism, economy, immigration -- these three things together make an explosive cocktail," Harris told Xinhua in a recent interview. He retired this year as deputy head of office of the European Parliament Liaison Office with U.S. Congress in Washington.
The sense of insecurity, triggered by terrorist attacks involving immigrants and a possible economic crisis "because of a shaky euro," could drive voters under the flag of populist parties, Harris explained.
