Migration: Union breaks off talks with traffic light coalition on restrictions

The Union has declared that talks with the federal government on a joint reform of migration policy have failed. Representatives of the CDU/CSU and the coalition “did not come to a common conclusion” during the discussions in Berlin on Tuesday, said Union parliamentary manager Thorsten Frei (CDU). The talks should therefore not be continued in this format: “That is unnecessary,” said Frei.

CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has sharply criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government. “The federal government is obviously hopelessly divided internally and cannot agree on effective measures,” the CDU chairman told Bild newspaper after the end of the deliberations. “The traffic light coalition is capitulating to the challenge of irregular migration,” Merz wrote, adding: “The federal government is incapable of action and leaderless.”

Greens: Tragedy from the Union

CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt said in Berlin that the traffic light coalition was not capable of taking effective measures to limit irregular migration. “We remain ready to agree on quick, effective measures to stop illegal migration, but not on placebo measures that have no real effect.”

Naturally, the SPD and the Greens rejected any responsibility for the failure of the talks. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said: “Friedrich Merz has today opted for the Wagenknecht method: harsh words, but no courage to take responsibility. This does not do justice to the CDU’s political self-image.” The fear of losing face within the party was evidently greater than the unconditional will to take political responsibility.

The Green Party’s parliamentary secretary, Irene Mihalic, said it was “a tragedy that the Union is not living up to its responsibility for our country and is continuing to pursue a policy of show effects without substance.” “To date, the Union has not put forward a proposal that is based on EU law.” The Union has “proven itself incapable of governing in this form and setup.”

Green Party leader Omid Nouripour was annoyed after the talks were broken off. “What a farce by the Union,” Nouripour told the news portal “t-online.” “The Union had the chance to participate in joint solutions and has shown very clearly that it is not capable of doing so,” he criticized. The Union is “obviously not concerned with the issue, not with real concerns, but simply with headlines, volume and profiling.”

CDU thinks Faeser’s proposals on migration are not enough

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of the SPD proposed a model at the meeting, which was also attended by representatives of the federal states, to bring asylum seekers who have already been registered elsewhere more quickly to the European states responsible for them. According to the minister, the traffic light government of the SPD, Greens and FDP now wants to pursue the plans without the Union. Faeser admitted: “If we want to establish this as a good system now, we need more staff so that the federal police can manage it in the long term.”

For the concrete implementation of the planned acceleration, cooperation with the affected federal states is necessary, said Faeser. She has already noticed interest in this from some states.

CDU politician Frei criticized the plans, saying they were not aimed at additional rejections at the German borders, but at accelerated procedures in Germany. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) said that keeping people in the border area would be more effective than pushing them back across the green border, where it could be expected that those pushed back would then make another attempt to enter the country elsewhere.

The article has been updated several times.