Bundestag: What is the influx limitation law about?

The Bundestag has just experienced a historical vote: after a heated meeting, the Union faction enforced its application to tighten asylum policy with votes from the AfD. This could be repeated on Friday. This time it is about the so -called influx limitation law that CDU/CSU brought into the Bundestag.

The core of the Union faction draft is the suspension of family reunification to refugees with limited protection status. These are often war refugees, for example from Syria. In the residence law, the limitation of migration is to be laid down as a goal. In addition, the powers of the federal police are to be expanded. In the future, if it meets in its area of ​​responsibility – for example at train stations – who is subject to retirement, it should be able to provide deportation.

In addition to the Union itself, the FDP, the AfD and the BSW have signaled their consent. It would be the first time that a law in the Bundestag would be adopted with the votes of the AfD. Union and FDP domestic politicians have appealed to the SPD to support the project in the Bundestag.

For the SPD, there could be no reason to stand against the draft, said the deputy chair of the Union faction, Andrea Lindholz. Finally, the SPD in the Grand Coalition in 2016 voted for the suspension of family reunification to be entitled to subsidiary and decided in 2021 the expansion of powers for the federal police together with the Union. The draft for a new Federal Police Act that contained this authority had failed at the time at the resistance of the federal states.

In contrast to the applications on Wednesday, this case is a law that would be legally binding and would have to be implemented by the federal government. The Federal Council would also have to agree to this. And it doesn’t look like that at the moment.

The Berlin ruled by the CDU and SPD has already announced that it would refuse the law. Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) also does not want to let a law pass that has achieved the majority with votes from the AfD.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) also doubts the constitutionality of the draft law. He had said on Wednesday in the program “Maischberger”: “The Federal Constitutional Court will probably never allow a sentence in which someone who lives here – justified – is entitled to make up for 10, 15, 20 years.”