Debate on rejections: Merz on migration: If necessary, Scholz must speak out

In the struggle for a tougher approach to migration, CDU leader Friedrich Merz is now taking Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) personally to task. He called on him to speak out if necessary on the controversial issue of turning back asylum seekers at the border. With a view to the new migration talks planned for next Tuesday, Merz said in Neuhardenberg: “If the Chancellor reaches a consensus in his government by then, that’s good. If he doesn’t, he can use his power to issue guidelines and say: we’re going to do it this way now.” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) meanwhile warned that proposals must also be legally sound.

Dobrindt criticizes Greens

“He has us on his side. We will support him,” added the chairman of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag at the meeting of the parliamentary group’s executive board. Merz stressed again that border controls and the rejection of refugees are a prerequisite for the Union representatives to take part in another migration discussion between the government, the opposition and the states. This rejection must be “comprehensive, not just somehow and a little bit.”

CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt said that it was not all three traffic light parties that were unwilling to do this. “It is obviously failing because of one party, the Greens.” Dobrindt called on Scholz to “bring this coalition partner under control.”

FDP hopes for agreements on rejections

The FDP parliamentary group is relying heavily on the next joint round of the federal government, the Union and the states when it comes to migration policy. “People expect us to bring order and control to migration policy, and now it is our job as democratic parties to implement this together,” said chairman Christian Dürr at the end of his parliamentary group’s autumn retreat in Hamburg.

It is particularly important that third countries are better integrated into German and European asylum and migration policy and “that we regain control over the borders.” This includes, in particular, rejections at the German borders, which are green borders away from the roads. “That is why we must also discuss within the group how rejections can be so effective that we (…) regain order and control.” With a view to the economy, Dürr also said: “It must be easier to come to Germany to work than to come to Germany not to work.”

Habeck: “That wouldn’t be my style”

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Baerbock urged differentiation in asylum policy measures. “Proposals that sound harsh but cannot be implemented because they violate the Basic Law or European law may be suitable for populist headlines, but they do not make our country any safer,” the Green politician told “Spiegel” with a view to demands from the Union for tightening of asylum law.

“You don’t fight terrorism in panic mode,” Baerbock continued. Baerbock criticized CDU leader Friedrich Merz’s call for a “de facto freeze on accepting refugees” from Syria and Afghanistan, which the Union parliamentary group leader had made after the knife attack in Solingen. “I cannot understand what proposals are supposed to do that are aimed at all Syrians and do not differentiate between an Islamist murderer and a family that fled Syria from IS.”

In response to a question about Merz, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck (Greens) said: “It would not be my style to work with ultimatums,” even though he believes Merz has since retracted this. The discussions on migration are about opening up a space for discussion between the government and the opposition. “Everyone is betraying themselves if they keep making it smaller.”