Attack in Aschaffenburg: After a knife attack: Scholz wants to make a government statement

The knife attack in Aschaffenburg has sparked a heated debate about migration policy – it will be played out in the Bundestag next week. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wants to make a government statement on “current domestic policy issues” there on Wednesday. He submitted a corresponding application to parliament on Friday, as the German Press Agency learned from government circles. It can be safely assumed that it will be about the consequences of the fatal knife attack in Aschaffenburg.

Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has announced that he wants to submit proposals on migration policy to the Bundestag next week. “And we will introduce them, regardless of who agrees with them,” said the CDU leader and the Union’s candidate for chancellor. There could be a majority for the Union proposals beyond the approval of the SPD and the Greens together with the FDP, AfD and BSW – together they would have 372 votes. The majority is 367.

The SPD has warned the Union against tearing down the firewall to the AfD. AfD and BSW have fundamentally signaled their approval of Union plans for a stricter migration policy. For the FDP, parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr told the Editorial Network Germany (RND): “If the Union pushes forward a decisive migration policy in the Bundestag, we will take a close look at it and support it if it goes in the right direction.” The FDP will also make its own proposals.

Scholz doubts Merz’s “firewall” promise

If he were elected chancellor, Merz had promised significantly more deportations and a “de facto entry ban” for many migrants at all borders. He made it clear that these are conditions for possible coalition partners and put it: “I don’t care who follows this path politically.”

Scholz warned Merz against wanting to push through Bundestag proposals for a stricter migration policy with the help of the AfD. “So far I had the impression that one could rely on the opposition leader’s statement that he would not work with the AfD even after the election,” Scholz told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”, the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” and the newspapers of the Neue Berliner Editorial Society. “Now I’m really worried now that the CDU wants to push through its proposals in the Bundestag with votes from the AfD.” The Chancellor demanded: “The firewall against the AfD must not crumble.”

Weidel: Firewall fallen. Chrupalla: Not yet.

The AfD leadership reacted differently. Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel wrote on

Co-party leader Tino Chrupalla, on the other hand, told “t-online”: “The firewall won’t fall yet if the CDU and CSU copy our proposals from the last few years and ask for our approval.” It will only fall if the other parliamentary groups in the Bundestag also agree to AfD proposals. However, the Union did not seek the AfD’s approval.

Wagenknecht: Of course I agree with sensible proposals

BSW boss Sahra Wagenknecht told the Germany editorial network: “If the Union submits sensible proposals to the German Bundestag to end uncontrolled migration and return people who have to leave the country to their home countries, then we will of course agree to them.”

Schedule for voting still unclear

Since the Union wants to submit one or more new proposals – including measures to end residence by the Federal Police – the proposals are unlikely to be voted on in the next week’s meeting, but will only be discussed in the first reading. It is questionable whether there will even be a vote before the election.

In Aschaffenburg, a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were killed and three people were seriously injured. A 28-year-old Afghan man who was arrested is a suspect. According to Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU), he was obliged to leave the country.

A question of the “firewall” to the AfD?

Merz emphasized: “We do not agree to a single AfD motion because we bring all the issues that we think are right to the Bundestag.” The Union Chancellor candidate added: “Anyone who wants to agree to these proposals should agree. And anyone who rejects them should reject them. I don’t look to the right or to the left. I only look straight ahead on these issues.”

Merz said his stance on the AfD was and remains clear: “We do not work with this party.” This means, firstly: “We will not go into government with them. Secondly: we will not negotiate any motions with them in the German Bundestag.” This also applies to Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW.

The CDU Presidium passed a resolution in 2020 that said: “The following applies to the CDU in Germany: There is no cooperation with the AfD – neither in direct nor indirect form.” The decision still applies.

Demand for border controls

Merz has announced that as Chancellor, on his first day in office, he will instruct the Interior Ministry to permanently control all borders and reject all illegal entries. This also applies to people who are entitled to protection. “There will be a de facto entry ban into the Federal Republic of Germany for everyone who does not have valid entry documents or who makes use of European freedom of movement.” The EU asylum rules are dysfunctional. “Germany must therefore exercise its right to the primacy of national law,” explained Merz.

In the Schengen area, border controls can be ordered for a limited period of time. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has already implemented this for all land borders and announced that she wants to extend it beyond March 2025. The Union had already supported the demand for blanket rejections after the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen in August, but there were legal concerns in the traffic light coalition.

SPD politician: “Not new and legally very questionable”

SPD parliamentary group deputy Dirk Wiese told the German Press Agency that the complete closure of Germany’s external borders contradicted European ideas and that the federal police did not have enough staff for this. Going it alone at national level by declaring a state of emergency could also have the opposite effect, namely that other member states “simply send people seeking protection through without being registered”.

Green candidate for chancellor Robert Habeck warned Merz against any collaboration with the AfD. Merz always emphasized: “There will be no cooperation under his leadership with the CDU in Germany; he ties his fate as party leader of the CDU to this answer,” Habeck told the German Press Agency. “This word must not be broken – I’m just afraid Friedrich Merz is on the verge of doing so.”

Left warns against hate speech against foreigners

The co-party leader of the Left, Jan van Aken, explained on the Phoenix broadcaster that after acts like the one in Aschaffenburg there should be no question of deportations: “It’s not an asylum question. It’s a question of how we deal with mentally ill violent criminals .”