Open letter: Resistance in SPD against stricter asylum policy

Resistance is forming within the SPD against the path of a stricter asylum policy taken by the traffic light coalition. In an open letter, hundreds of Social Democrats are calling on SPD representatives in the federal government and the Bundestag to defend the right to asylum and uphold human rights.

“The SPD must never take up the misanthropic narratives and positions of right-wing parties and thereby normalize them,” says the letter, which was initiated by members of the European Parliament, Bundestag and state parliaments, as well as ordinary party members and has since been signed by hundreds more. “Adopting the language of the right when it comes to asylum seekers fleeing war and chaos and planning closed borders within Europe – such a shift fuels the positions of the extreme right.”

This shift in the discourse space is extremely dangerous for democracy and society. “The clear, unrestricted firewall against the right must instead be reflected in the political actions and words of social democracy. We stand for our basic values, freedom, justice, solidarity and for the inviolable dignity of man. We stand against populism, racism and misanthropy.”

“Discourse of exclusion and stigmatization”

Leading Social Democrats have recently helped fuel a “discourse of exclusion and stigmatization,” criticize the signatories of the letter, which has been reported on by several media outlets and is also available to the German Press Agency. They have pushed for measures to reject refugees at the borders and proposed detention near the border as a supposed solution to problems such as extremism. An entire group of people is thus being placed under blanket suspicion of terrorism.

The traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP responded to the suspected Islamist-motivated attack in Solingen in August with a so-called security package. It includes, among other things, planned tightening of asylum law and more border controls, but also deportations to Syria and Afghanistan. The plans in asylum policy also include a payment card for asylum seekers and the reduction of benefits for certain refugees.

The signatories of the letter doubt that many of the measures are compatible with European or German law. “We therefore call on the social democratic members of the federal government and the Bundestag to once again campaign for a humane asylum policy that does not reproduce right-wing fantasies of closed borders and instead respects European law and international solidarity,” say the signatories of the letter. Political decisions must be guided by fundamental values ​​and not supposed surveys or sentiments.

The initiators of the open letter include mainly Berlin SPD politicians, including Integration Senator Cansel Kiziltepe, but also members from other state associations. These include the chairwoman of the SPD’s Basic Values ​​Commission, Gesine Schwan, and Juso leader Philipp Türmer.