Migration: Strack-Zimmermann calls Dobrindt’s initiative “spooky”

FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has described the proposal by CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt to send Ukrainian refugees without permanent work back to their home country as “spooky”.

The Union is beginning to distance itself from the fate of the refugees and the war in Ukraine, said the MEP on Deutschlandfunk. This is exactly what Russian President Vladimir Putin is aiming for: “That we lose our nerve here, that we discuss things and slowly turn against Ukrainian refugees – who have come because they feared for their lives.”

“I find it bizarre”

There are no regions in Ukraine that can be described as safe. Putin’s missiles hit even the far west of the country on the Polish-Ukrainian border. “I strongly recommend traveling there to see what tragedies are unfolding there,” said Strack-Zimmermann. “I find it bizarre to judge this from the heat.” Dobrindt had called for war refugees to be sent back “to safe areas of western Ukraine” if they do not accept work in Germany.

The FDP politician continued that it was right that more Ukrainians needed to find work in Germany. However, childcare was a problem, not a lack of will, particularly for the many refugee women. She accused the Union of conducting the discussion about social benefits for refugees for electoral reasons.

This was intended to attract AfD voters from the eastern German states. “If we start using AfD terminology in the hope of getting votes, that won’t work,” she stressed. State elections will be held in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony in September.