Migration summit failed: Please no crocodile tears, Mr Merz!

Opinion

With the failure of the summit, the time has come for blame to be assigned. That is what the political drama demands. So, who was to blame? Was it the Greens, once again the eternal blockers? The orthodox liberals or the Federal Minister of the Interior herself?

One thing is certain: this alleged migration summit was not a blessing from the start. The traffic light coalition should have cancelled it at the latest with Merz’s ultimatum. The Union does not want to come unless comprehensive rejections of all kinds are agreed? Well, then it just won’t come. A sovereign federal government should never have allowed itself to be blackmailed like that.

But is the coalition to blame for the failure of the talks? Hardly. Or at least not solely to blame.

The opposition leader’s prerogative at the migration summit

It is the prerogative of an opposition leader to put forward proposals that appear bolder, more daring, sometimes a little too ambitious or even illusory. That is exactly what the CDU leader has done. He is allowed to do so. But from a man who tries every second of his existence to create the impression that he is a better chancellor than Olaf Scholz in the Chancellery, voters are entitled to expect a little more. Proposals, for example, that could be implemented now, immediately, without delay.

Instead, Merz must now face the question of how great his own desire for unification really was.

Merz said in the evening, his voice choked with crocodile tears, that he had really tried everything to keep the sensitive issue of migration out of the election campaign. Which is of course not entirely true. Secretly, he had at least hoped that the issue would finally drive the traffic light coalition apart.

The CDU leader’s deep-seated trauma

This is also why Merz helped to bring the issue of migration to such a political head. In the aftermath of the Solingen attack, he sensed an opportunity to bring about the migration policy turnaround that he has been dreaming of since Merkel refused to close the border in September 2015. The former chancellor’s refugee policy is his deep-seated trauma – and now he saw the opportunity for therapy.

Now Solingen thinks so. The knife attack at the town festival was a terrible terrorist attack, one that could possibly have been prevented if the authorities had deported the man in time before he could become a perpetrator. Yes, all of that is true.

Merz sensed the widespread desire of many people that more must now be done than just speeding up administrative processes. That is why he put the traffic light coalition under pressure with his list of demands. That is why, after his conversation with the Chancellor, he sat in front of the capital’s press for more than an hour and dictated what should now be done. He did not want to hear any more about problems, he wanted solutions.

We are drowning in chaos? Hardly

From the outset, this solution in Merz’s sense included declaring a state of emergency. At the federal level and in all federal states, including those governed by the CDU, the state order would be in danger because of the migration flows. This is of course completely absurd – despite all the problems facing many municipalities and with all the love of exaggeration. But it would have been the prerequisite for suspending the current procedural rules at the EU’s internal borders and being able to turn away refugees of all kinds: we are drowning in chaos. We can no longer even manage to organize registration or repatriation.

However, neither the current figures nor the situation in large parts of the country support this. Nevertheless, an opposition politician can of course demand that refugees be turned away in full. But a government cannot implement it. A government should not knowingly and intentionally disregard applicable EU law. The government of the largest EU member state should certainly not do so.

It is the constant goal of populists, especially those on the right, to prove that the “system” is not capable of solving the real problems. Merz is therefore absolutely right when he states that they are the ones who benefit most from the failure. He himself played a part in it today.