After the knife attack in Solingen, Scholz and Merz are exploring common ground in migration policy. What the CDU leader is demanding after that would amount to nothing less than a breakdown of the coalition.
After the fatal knife attack in Solingen, opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) is offering Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) a joint reorientation of migration policy – if necessary even without the traffic light partners Greens and FDP. “If we pull together, Union and SPD, then we don’t need the FDP or the Greens to make the necessary legal changes,” he said after a meeting with Scholz in Berlin that lasted just over an hour.
Merz’s proposal amounts to a demand for a coalition break. The 2021 coalition agreement states the following about the cooperation between the three traffic light partners: “In the German Bundestag and in all committees it sends, the coalition factions vote unanimously. This also applies to issues that are not the subject of the agreed policy. Changing majorities are excluded.”
Only in ethical questions such as euthanasia is it usually agreed to lift party discipline. The Greens and FDP are unlikely to agree to this in a central political issue such as migration policy.
“The Chancellor is now losing control of his own country”
Merz referred to the Chancellor’s authority to issue guidelines and stressed that the SPD and the Union together have 403 of the 733 members of the Bundestag and thus have a clear absolute majority in parliament. “This is expressly not a request to be included in a coalition. We do not want to become part of the government here,” stressed Merz. However, there is an urgent need for action without taboos. “The Chancellor is now losing control of his own country. He is losing trust.”
According to the CDU leader, Scholz did not agree to the proposal during the conversation. “He did not spontaneously express his approval,” said Merz. However, he assumes that he will receive a response “within a few days.” The small group talks “could have started this afternoon. But if it takes place a day or two later, that’s fine too.”
Scholz: Cooperation: yes – but “not all over the place”
In his first public reaction, Scholz welcomed the CDU leader’s offer of talks at an election campaign event in Thuringia, but also made it clear that he does not believe in changing majorities for a migration pact. “The government and the opposition are always well advised to work together,” he said, but then added: “Not at cross-purposes, but with one another.”
Nevertheless, it is right “if the opposition leader in the German Bundestag also offers cooperation” in reducing irregular migration. However, Scholz pointed out the legal limits that exist: “Our international treaties apply. The rules of the European Union apply. What our constitution prescribes applies. And then many practical suggestions are welcome.”
Merz in with a tie – and out without one
Scholz and Merz had spoken to each other for a good hour in the Chancellery that morning. Shortly before 9 a.m., the CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag arrived at the Chancellery in his limousine. He was still wearing a tie. It was gone when he left the government headquarters at around 10:15 a.m. Merz justified this by saying that he had eaten breakfast with the Chancellor. “We not only had a good conversation, but also had breakfast. And that’s why I took off my tie to protect it,” said the CDU leader.
Merz then spoke of a “very good conversation in terms of atmosphere”. However, he had already built up massive pressure beforehand. Under the headline “Enough!” he called for a change in migration policy on Sunday and doubled down on it on Monday at a campaign event in Dresden. “We want nothing more and nothing less than for the Chancellor to fulfill his oath of office and avert harm to the German people.”
Merz proposes migration commissioner from Union and government
During his conversation with Scholz, Merz suggested appointing representatives from the government and the Union to explore the legal possibilities for a reorientation of migration policy. Merz wants to send Parliamentary Secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU) to the meeting on behalf of the Union faction.
The parliamentary group leader also made concrete proposals to initiate legislative changes as early as the first week of the Bundestag session in mid-September. The week in question is actually supposed to be devoted exclusively to discussions on the budget for 2025. According to Merz’s proposal, half a day should be set aside to clarify which changes in migration policy could be agreed upon.
Specifically, the Union is calling for rejected asylum seekers to be deported back to Syria and Afghanistan. Anyone who travels from Germany to their home country as a refugee should immediately lose all residence status in Germany. There should be permanent controls at the EU’s external borders and more powers for the federal police. Merz is also bringing the declaration of a “national emergency” into play in order to circumvent EU law and to ensure that migrants who first entered another EU country are rejected.
Little chance for an informal grand coalition
The extent to which the fundamental willingness to cooperate will lead to concrete results will probably only become clear after the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia this Sunday. If the attempt at cooperation fails, it would not be the first time.
Scholz and Merz had already held talks on the topic of migration last autumn before a migration summit between the federal and state governments. However, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader was dissatisfied with the package of measures subsequently agreed by Scholz and the state premiers and rejected further cooperation. At that time, too, the discussion focused on setting up a joint working group between the government and the Union to control immigration, which Scholz did not want. “In my view, this means that the issue of the German pact on migration is over,” said Merz at the beginning of November.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
