Friedrich Merz and the cityscape: A sentence that will hunt him

Friedrich Merz has an almost world-class command of a discipline that is unusual for top politicians: The Chancellor likes to create political problems for himself. The latest example: his sentence about “migration” and “this problem in the cityscape”.

At a meeting in Brandenburg, Friedrich Merz actually wanted to talk about his federal government’s successes in asylum policy. What he said instead was this: “We are very far along in migration.” The number of asylum seekers has been reduced by 60 percent. “But we still have this problem in the cityscape,” explained the Chancellor.

Although “explain” is too big a word for that. The head of government actually whispered publicly about what is usually being said at the republic’s regulars’ tables. The very man who wants to get this country’s problems under control is opening the door to a dark attitude: According to surveys, many Germans believe that there are now too many people in the inner cities who look, smell or have different names and sometimes talk louder.

One thing can be said: There are problems in German city centers, especially around train stations. Neglect, drug use, violence. Some of them are triggered by the absurdities of the asylum system, by traumatized people with no prospects. Of course, the strong asylum migration to Germany has brought problems, as has poverty migration within the EU. A chancellor has to talk about it, especially a conservative one like Merz.

He’s right, his supporters shout. Finally someone says it!

But Merz says actually something else. If he wanted to talk about crime by foreigners, he could have talked about crime by foreigners. If he wanted to talk about issues surrounding train stations, he could have said the same thing. But he didn’t. When he talks about “migration” as a problem, he is talking about all migrants. And don’t be surprised if they feel like they’ve been excluded from the community.

Words have meaning. Governing requires precision. Whispering is a citizen’s privilege. And the art of political speech is to be understood as one would like.

Merz’s sentence about the “cityscape” opens a glimpse into a reactionary world of longing that leads far back into German post-war history, to a time when the city tailor was called Müller and the shop owner was called Meier, and the Kowalskis and Kayas contributed to the economic miracle at the time as unskilled workers and cleaning staff. This republic no longer exists. Lucky.

Germany has long been a country of immigration; almost every third resident has a migration background. The CDU has ruled this country for most of the time. Does Merz want to go back to another time? Did he really mean that? Probably not. But even the appearance of resentment is threatening to him too. And poison for his plan to govern this country without the AfD.

It’s easy to imagine what will happen next. In every debate you can now accuse him of: Mr. Merz, you wanted to change our cityscape again! “Shisha bars” and “Asian snack bars” everywhere and it always smells so strange, recently the neighbors were loud again and one of them is even veiled.

People are like that. The Chancellor will then probably answer that 60 percent more are already being deported and that he has so and so many laws tightened and so and so Many police officers were newly hired.

You can also imagine the answer: But the cityscape, Mr. Merz, I still don’t feel comfortable there anymore.

The extreme right will hunt him down with his sentence. And (falsely) promise that the “good old” Müller-Maier-Schulze days would come back. Keyword: remigration.

AfD woman Beatrix von Storch is looking forward to it. The Chancellor has the special gift, she wrote, of packing things into a single word: #Cityscape. “Keep it up. Now all you have to do is act accordingly.”

Experience shows that Friedrich Merz will be busy relativizing and classifying his statements. He only meant asylum seekers and only those who are here illegally. And of course, Germany is a country of immigration, and he has no problem with migration itself.

But the Chancellor and his party shouldn’t be surprised if more and more people are now whispering: Is that true?