WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
on the scene five minutes after
the initial calls and were met
with “wild chaos.”
Authorities said the perpetra-tor was local, from the district of
Trier-Saarburg.
“What in Trier happened is
shocking,” government spokes-man Steffen Seibert tweeted.
“Our thoughts are with the rela-
tives of the victims, with the
numerous injured and with ev-eryone who is currently on duty
to care for those affected.”
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[email protected]BY LOVEDAY MORRIS
AND LUISA BECKberlin — A man deliberately
plowed an SUV through pedestri-
an streets and a central square in
the southwestern German city of
Trier on Tuesday, police said,
killing at least four people in-
cluding a 9-month-old baby.
Authorities said they arrested
the suspected driver, a 51-year-
old German who lived in the area.
While the incident bore the hall-
marks of past terrorism attacks
with vehicles used as weapons,
police said they had no evidence
of possible political, religious or
terrorist motives.
At least 15 people were injured,
four severely.
The suspect, who had been
living in his car, was intoxicated
and would undergo a psychologi-
cal evaluation, said the state’s
interior minister, Roger Lewentz.
The car sped for more than a
half-mile through the pictur-
esque medieval city center and
past the city’s Christmas tree,
zigzagging to apparently maxi-
mize casualties, before being cor-
nered by police, he added.
Video posted online showed a
man being pinned to the ground
by police next to a silver-gray
vehicle along a bike lane. An-
other showed the mayhem in-
flicted: ambulances and para-
medics on a shopping street
strewn with debris.
One witness quoted in the
local media described a stroller
flying in the air as the car flew
through the market area. The
dead also included a 73-year-old
woman, 45-year-old man and 25-
year-old woman, authorities
said.
Speaking to reporters, the
city’s mayor, Wolfram Leibe, was
overcome with emotion.
“We often see such images on
TV and think, ‘That can’t happen
to us here,’ ” he said. “But now it’s
happened in Trier.”
He called the scene “just terri-
ble.”
“There was a sneaker, and the
girl it belonged to is dead,” he
said, fighting back tears.
Some European cities have
added bollards and concrete
blocks in pedestrian areas in
recent years after a spate of
car-ramming attacks, including
one in the French city of Nice on
Bastille Day 2016 that killed 86
people and was claimed by Islam-
ic State militants. Twelve people
died in a truck attack on a Berlin
Christmas market later that year.
“I don’t know the motivation
of the perpetrator,” Leibe said,
adding that he was “crossing my
fingers” that all those injured
survived.
Leibe said the police arrivedSUV rams pedestrians
in Germany, killing four
BY RICK NOACK
AND QUENTIN ARIÈSberlin — A key political ally of
right-wing Hungarian Prime Min-
ister Viktor Orban has resigned
after attending what local media
outlets described as a “sex party”
in the Belgian capital of Brussels
on Friday night.
Jozsef Szajer, a founding mem-
ber of Orban’s Fidesz party and a
member of the European Parlia-
ment, confirmed in a statement
Tuesday that he “was present” at a
“private party in Brussels on Fri-
day.” He had abruptly resigned
from his parliamentary position
Sunday, citing “a long period of
reflection.”
Szajer didn’t mention the event
in his initial resignation state-
ment Sunday. But after multiple
media outlets in Belgium and
Hungary began disclosing infor-
mation about the party, S zajer on
Tuesday confirmed that he was
present when police officers dis-
rupted the event, held in violation
of Belgium’s coronavirus restric-
tions.
He attempted to escape
“through the roof gutter,” accord-
ing to a Belgian newspaper, before
being apprehended by officers.
“This man was unable to pro-
duce any identity documents. He
was taken to his home,” the Brus-sels public prosecutor said in a
statement, according to La
Dernière Heure newspaper.
In a statement sent by a spokes-
man for the center-right political
group in the European Parlia-
ment, Szajer denied reports that
he had consumed drugs at the
party, even though he confirmed
that authorities said they found
ecstasy. Prosecutors said they
found narcotics in the backpack of
an attendee, whom they identified
with S zajer’s initials and year of
birth.
If he were to be charged with
drug offenses, Brussels prosecu-
tors would need to file a parlia-
mentary immunity waiver to theEuropean Parliament.
The Het Laatste Nieuws news-
paper reported that a crowd of
25 mostly male visitors — includ-
ing multiple people claiming dip-
lomatic immunity — had attended
the party only yards from a central
Brussels police station.
Szajer was one of the architects
of Hungary’s new constitution,
drafted starting in 2010, that drew
fierce criticism from LGBT and
human rights groups at the time.
Human Rights Watch subsequent-
ly found that provisions in it “dis-
criminate against LGBT people
and limit women’s rights.”
In recent years, critics have ac-
cused Hungary’s right-wing gov-ernment of an increasingly illiber-
al stance and repeated assaults
against democratic institutions
under the pretext of defending
“Christian values.” Last month,
Orban’s government proposed a
constitutional amendment to
align children’s upbringing with
Hungary’s “ national self-identifi-
cation and Christian culture” — a
move that would de facto ban
same-sex adoption.
In his statement Tuesday, Szajer
apologized to his family, col-
leagues and voters. He asked them
not to extend their blame over his
“misstep” to “my homeland, or to
my political community.”
But critics of the Hungariangovernment immediately seized
on the news Tuesday, accusing
Szajer and his party of hypocrisy.
“The anti-LGBTI* hatred
spread by the far right for years —
including by Fidesz... — is de-
stroying people’s lives,” wrote Ter-
ry Reintke, a German Green party
member of the European Parlia-
ment on Twitter, without directly
referring to the incident. “Our
fight against the attacks on funda-
mental rights — especially in Po-
land and Hungary — will contin-
ue.”
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[email protected]Ariès reported from Brussels.Hungarian lawmaker caught fleeing a restrictions-defying ‘sex party’ resigns
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Emergency personnel work at the scene after a vehicle drove into pedestrians in Trier, in southwestern Germany. In addition to at least
four deaths, at least 15 people were wounded when the SUV sped for a half-mile through pedestrian-only streets and a city square.PRESENTING SPONSORWashington Post economics correspondent Heather Long hosts discussions with top lawmakersand CEOs to assess the fiscal impact of mobile-first technology, big data analytics, gig work,and new workforce paradigms.Thursday, Dec. 3 at 11:00 a.m. ETWatch live: wapo.st/futureofworkdecSEN. MARK WARNER
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