Migration: Merz for nationwide payment card for refugees

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) advocates a nationwide uniform payment card for refugees and wants to make this an issue in the black and red coalition. “The introduction of the nationwide payment card is actually overdue,” said Merz after a meeting with the Bavarian cabinet on the Zugspitze. “We will put this to the test again in the coalition and clarify the question of whether we will not come to a uniform solution,” announced the CDU chairman. “It would be good if we would regulate this in the Asylum Seekers Act uniformly for all federal states,” he argued.

Bavaria and some other federal states have already introduced such a payment card. Asylum seekers thus receive a large part of the state benefits on a livelihood as a credit over the card and accordingly fewer cash. Among other things, it is to prevent migrants from transferring money to tractors or family and friends abroad.

Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also demanded that the payment card had to be introduced throughout Germany.

Merz: border controls are necessary

Merz also defended the extended German border controls. “These border controls are a temporary use to solve a problem.” But you can see that the problem is slowly getting smaller – in May and June you had almost 50 percent fewer asylum applications at the borders compared to the same period last year. “This trend will continue.”

However, Merz emphasized: “I hope and use a European solution very much. Until then, border controls unfortunately remain necessary, but only to the extent where they are really necessary.” One does not want to question Schengen that they want to preserve free goods traffic and the free movement of people in Europe.