Terror in Villach

This asylum policy is unbearable!

(Bild: APA/PETER LINDNER, AFP, Krone Kreativ)

After the terrorist attack in Villach that left a 14-year-old dead, it is time to settle accounts with asylum policy in Europe. "Krone" Vienna editor-in-chief Michael Pommer talks about the intolerability of the current situation - and how politicians deal with victims.

I find it unbearable that we are now back to the voyeurism of misery. Politicians go to crime scene shows. Even more disgusting in Germany than it is here, with their Olaf Scholzes and Nancy Faesers, who are responsible for the mass influx. Disaster tourism in designer suits.

So this is where the child was stabbed to death, bad. Set up a grave candle, preferably one with a composition oil light, designed to be lit in the open air, because terror usually takes place outside. Costs 2.39 euros in the supermarket. Am I standing correctly? Look sad enough? Kneeling down now is always a good idea. Photographers take photos, politicians say: "We are shocked by this terrible attack and I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families." A nice sentence, remember it for next time.

I find it unbearable that some people talk about the term trauma as if it were an excuse for mass murder. The perpetrator was insane, he was not culpable. How often we have heard that in the past. Certainly a comforting thought for a mother who has to organize the funeral of her child. It's not his fault. I don't want to trivialize mental illness, especially not war psychosis, but I'm at an age when I was told the horrific stories my grandparents told me during the Second World War. Horrific stories that still make my grandmother's eyes glaze over and she always seems a little absent-minded when she tells us about them. Many memories of her life fade with age, like the colors of a historical painting, but those of the war remain. These people have become contemporary witnesses, not child murderers.

I find it unbearable that we are once again talking about senseless bans. Hate preachers on social networks should be blocked, period, no question about it. But in Villach, it wasn't an algorithm that stabbed a 14-year-old to death, but a Syrian with an affinity for terrorism. Anyone interested in French bulldogs, like me, can find videos of cuddly monsters with googly eyes on TikTok, sports fans can look forward to pole vaulting content and amateur confectioners to instructions on how to make the perfect tarte au chocolat. I don't get any hate preachers flushed into my timeline, no "Allahu Akbar". Supply and demand. No-knife zones are never wrong, but as far as I know, legally I may not be up to date, the whole of Austria is a no-murder zone, a no-terrorist-attack zone, a no-rape zone. We can ban even more, chopsticks and belt buckles, but not one attack will be prevented. It's just a pretense of security where there has long been none.

I find it intolerable that a habituation effect is setting in that we have an obligation to fight against. What was the terrorist attack outside Mannheim? How old was the boy who was stabbed in Aschaffenburg? When was the first mass murder by truck at a Christmas market? Was it in 2016? Earlier, later? Horror is disguised as everyday life, there is a threat of immunization of the intolerable. Like the rampages in America. Eight dead again. A side note is enough. If we get used to terror, like bollards and heavily armed police at Christmas markets, we've lost.

I find it unbearable that this will not be my last comment on this subject. It will happen again. Attacks, grinning perpetrators, lighting candles, sympathy. When will politicians finally do something about it? The eternally long wait for this answer is what I find most unbearable.