Terrorists have won if we cower behind Xmas stall barriers

GERMAN Christmas markets are becoming unrecognisable.

- Esther Krakue Daily Express columnist

For centuries, they were one of Europe’s highest-trust traditions — open, lightly policed and often woven into public squares on the assumption people could gather peacefully without fear.That assumption has now collapsed, and not by accident.

Across Germany, viral images show Christmas markets sealed off with concrete blocks, steel bollards and controlled entry points. Armed police can be seen patrolling stalls and fairy lights. In some cities, barriers have even been painted green or shaped like Christmas trees, a halfhearted attempt to soften what is — let’s face it - permanent anti-terror infrastructure.

It didn’t come from nowhere. It’s the direct consequence of repeated attacks and credible threats against Christmas markets, overwhelmingly linked to Islamist extremism.

In 2016, an Islamist asylum seeker who pledged allegiance to Isis, hijacked a lorry and murdered 12 people at Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz market. Last month, a Saudi-born man went on trial accused of driving a car into a crowded market, killing six people, and injuring more than 300, in east German town Magdeburg last December.

Just last week, German police foiled an Islamist plot to ram a vehicle into a Bavarian market.