Scholz, speaking after he joined regional officials in laying a white flower at a makeshift memorial in the western city of Solingen, said he was “furious and angry” about the attack, in which eight people also were wounded.
The suspect turned himself in to police on Saturday evening, a day after the attack at a festival marking the city's 650th anniversary. Federal prosecutors said Sunday that he shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State terrorist group, which he joined at a point that remains unclear, and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the neck and upper body.
The 26-year-old had had his asylum application rejected and was supposed to be deported last year to Bulgaria, where he first entered the European Union, but that failed because he disappeared for a time, according to German media reports.
That has revived criticism of the government on migration and deportation, an issue on which it has long been vulnerable. It has taken steps to defuse the issue, for example with legislation intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers that was approved by lawmakers in January. It also has launched legislation to ease the deportation of foreigners who publicly approve of terrorist acts.
“We must do everything to ensure that such things never happen in our country, if possible,” Scholz said of the attack. He said that would include toughening knife laws in particular “and this should and will happen very quickly.”
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser earlier this month proposed allowing only knives with a blade measuring up to nearly 2.4 inches to be carried in public, rather than the length of 4.7 inches that is allowed now.
“We will have to do everything so that those who aren't allowed to stay in Germany are sent back and deported,” he said, adding that “we have massively expanded the possibilities to carry out such deportations."
