“I was really concerned”

Berlin (dpa) – It was one of those moments we never forget: Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was there when a array of attacks began on a dusk of 13 Nov 2015. Together with France’s President François Hollande, he was sitting in Stade de France to watch a general soccer compare between France and Germany.

dpa: You were sitting subsequent to a French boss in a VIP stand. Did we immediately consider of a apprehension conflict when we listened a explosions?

Frank-Walter Steinmeier: When those dual unequivocally shrill bangs went off in a center of a initial half, primarily we felt like everybody else in a stadium: we had no suspicion what had unequivocally happened. My initial suspicion was that fireworks had been set off by insane fans.

When and how did we find out about a attacks?

Roughly entertain of an hour before half time a French confidence central came to President Hollande and sensitive us that there had substantially been some-more than one blast in front of a stadium. A few mins after he came behind and reported there had been deaths. That was a shock. Of course, we asked ourselves: shouldn’t we stop a match? But, following consultations during half time, it was motionless to let a compare continue to not means a panic. President Hollande left a track to lead a predicament team. We were asked to lapse to a VIP mount so that a spectators wouldn’t turn worried.

How did we feel during that moment?

I sat in a stand, and thousands of thoughts went by my head, unequivocally positively zero to do with football. It was a terrible feeling, also since some-more and some-more information arrived about a other attacks in a city. Nevertheless, it was critical to keep ease in sequence not to trigger a panic.

Did we fear for your life?

No, though apparently we was unequivocally endangered – for a people in a track and in a city. My biggest fear was that news of a attacks would widespread and panic would mangle out in a stadium. But a troops did a good job. Thanks to them it was probable to transparent a track after a compare though any passed or injured.

At that time there was speak of a 9/11 for Europe. Looking behind after a year, would we see it that approach today?

Such terrible events can't be compared. It is clear: these attacks were an conflict on Europe as a whole – on a approach of life, a culture, a values. The Americans substantially also had this feeling after 9/11.

There have also been bad apprehension attacks in Europe before: in London, Madrid and on a Charlie Hebdo editorial offices in Paris. Why was a startle even larger than it was after a progressing attacks?

The other apprehension attacks, each singular one of them, were a startle too. The attacks of 13 Nov seemed generally rigourously concurrent and ruthlessly executed. You had to have a feeling that a ISIS apprehension squad had now arrived in a heart of Europe. Don’t forget: we had witnessed a allege of ISIS in Iraq and afterwards Syria from summer 2014. The impassioned savagery of this squad of terrorists had brought measureless pang on people in these dual countries. And that had now also come to us in Europe.

The Federal Government responded in a identical approach to after 9/11: undeniable oneness – afterwards with a USA, this time with France. At a commencement of 2002 a Bundeswehr was sent to Afghanistan; one year ago, it entered a onslaught opposite IS (other name: ISIS) in Syria and Iraq in response to a attacks in Paris. Would this preference have been taken otherwise?

On 13 Nov not usually Paris was struck, though a whole of Europe, Germany too, us too. Our oneness with France was never in doubt during this formidable time. we even tweeted that casually on a moody from Paris to Vienna – immediately after a compare on my approach to a Syria discussion there. But, even before this attack, everybody was wakeful that ISIS can't be degraded though troops means. The general village had already assimilated together in an anti-ISIS bloc on a fringes of a UN General Assembly in autumn 2014. And previously, in Aug 2014, we had already taken a formidable preference to yield not usually charitable aid, though also troops apparatus and training to a peshmerga. That was – and still is from today’s viewpoint – a right decision. But, of course, it will not be probable to better terrorism by troops means alone. What we need is prospects for a people and fortitude in a Middle East.

Has a hazard of apprehension now also turn normal in Germany?

In Germany we do not live on an Island of a Blessed. Terror is an general threat; this risk affects us too. Absolute confidence does not exist, though a confidence agencies do all they can to minimise a danger. Not usually a prevented, though also a unprevented attacks uncover that we need tighten team-work between a European confidence agencies. We are stability to allege that.

Security precautions in Germany are still assuage in comparison to France and Belgium. The governments in Paris and Brussels do not have any problem with safeguarding airports and traveller attractions with heavily armed soldiers. Will that also occur in Germany after a vital apprehension attack?

In a country, too, a confidence agencies are unequivocally vigilant. But we will not concede fraudulent murderers to destroy a “way of life”. We contingency consider a dangers and risks realistically. However, there is no indicate in vital in consistent fear. We do all we can to give a confidence agencies entrance to a right instruments to forestall apprehension attacks as distant as it is possible.

Source: dpa; translation: FSM

Article source: https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/i-was-very-concerned