Migration: Union faction leaders before the federal-state round in the Chancellery

Three days before the federal-state round with a focus on migration, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) speaks to the leaders of the Union in the Bundestag. Party leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) and the chairman of the CSU regional group, Alexander Dobrindt, came to the Chancellery. No information about the conversation should be given; both sides had agreed to confidentiality.

This Monday, Scholz will discuss with the state prime ministers, among other things, stronger management of migration and the future financing of the reception of refugees.

The Chancellor’s first meeting with Merz and the Prime Ministers Boris Rhein (Hesse, CDU) and Stephan Weil (Lower Saxony, SPD) took place three weeks ago. Scholz wants to involve the opposition in the Bundestag in efforts to limit irregular migration because he is striving for the broadest possible social consensus on this issue.

Union faction insists on movement

The First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, had tied the participation of the CDU and CSU to conditions in advance of the conversation. “We have to finally cut the Gordian knot. That’s what people expect from politics,” said the CDU politician to the “Rheinische Post”. In the direction of Scholz, he said: “If the traffic light coalition does not have the strength to make its own decisions, the Union is fundamentally ready to tackle these challenges.” However, the prerequisite is “that something really moves”.

Parliamentary group leader Merz recently saw the migration measures planned by the federal government as only cosmetic steps to limit the influx. He presented the Chancellor with a 26-point catalog of demands at the first migration meeting. The Union demands from Scholz, among other things, a “common understanding” that “with a view to the integration infrastructure and social cohesion, Germany can tolerate asylum immigration of up to a maximum of 200,000 people per year.”