Saturday’s mass demonstration was seen by millions as a way to testify to their 42-year-old jovial prime minister in the many year’s overdue reforms. To say “Beka” – “Enough is enough” to political harassment, muzzles, and corruption. The T-shirts, which were sold the day before for horrendous 300 Birr or 10 euros in the streets of Addis Abeba, showed Abiy as a superstar. But while the majority was in party mood, others indicated the solidarity march as an affront. The one that the new guy had sorted out in the past few weeks without much effort: the military, intelligence agents, bank chiefs, provincial princes. They all share the desire to see Abiy fail.

Only a few days ago at this point in a statement was warned that it could exaggerate the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed with its pace of reform something. After all, they were not able to keep up after all: a state of emergency was lifted, thousands of political prisoners were released, large-scale cleaning in the military and secret service, liberalization of the economy – and then peace with archrival Eritrea! All this is quite unheard of for such a conservative and in democracy little-practiced society as the Ethiopian.

And now it has come, as some observers had feared on Friday. The evidence condenses that the attack was the reformer Abiy directly.

The attack had been perpetrated by “peace-hostile” elements who wanted to oppose the “unity” of the country, said the uninjured prime minister immediately after the grenade throw. With this, the former military Abiy has put his finger in the wound: the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia is an extremely fragile structure that has held together in recent decades only the common rejection of the ruling political caste, a national unity of 100 million people between Afar in the north and Borena in the south, there can be no question. On the contrary, with the onset of the Ethiopian spring, the power struggle among the dominant ethnic groups and regions, which have joined forces in the 25-year authoritarian ruling EPRDF coalition, has come to the fore.

Now you will have to wait for the next days. If first rumors prove that security forces are behind the attack, the anger of the many reform-minded Ethiopians could be directed against them. If the attackers were also to be assigned to an ethnic group, which is particularly strongly represented in the security apparatus of Ethiopia, threatened with acts of retaliation and aggravation of ethnic conflicts.

For the “Messiah” Abiy, as they already call him, after this Saturday the realization remains that he is well advised to take along those who are reluctant to embark on his reform journey. “A powerful friend becomes a mighty enemy,” is the name of a popular Ethiopian proverb. Abiy, the first Prime Minister of the Oromo majority people, has made numerous powerful enemies in recent months. If his experiment succeeds, he must avoid the impression that his reforms are ethnically motivated. As he said after the attack: “For you who wanted to divide us apart, I have a message: You have failed.”