Friedrich Merz speaks of “daily group rapes” – is that true?

In the debate about the “influx limitation law” planned by the Union, which is intended to reduce the number of asylum movers in Germany, the shreds flew. The focus was on the man who has been discussing half the country on Wednesday since coordination with the AfD: Friedrich Merz.

On Friday afternoon, the CDU boss in the Bundestag once again justified that the proposal for a stricter asylum law was passed with the votes of the right-wing extremist party. One sentence caused outrage, especially in the SPD, the Greens and the left.

Merz claimed that in Germany there were “group rapes from the asylum seeker’s milieu every day”. After the sentence, interjections could be heard. Is Merz ‘statement right?

This had published the figures on group rape to a small request from the AfD parliamentary group in June 2024. They are based on the police crime statistics (PKS).

According to this, 761 so -called group rapes occurred in 2023. That is more than two a day. After 789 in the previous year and 677 in 2021. According to PKS, the proportion of “non -German suspects” was 50 percent in 2019 and 2022, while it was 46 percent in 2020, 47 percent in 2021 and in 2023 at 48 percent.

At least the number of “Daily group rapes” by Friedrich Merz can be explained. If foreigners are to be responsible for half of the group rapes, this corresponds to a group rape a day. So Merz points out a real problem.

However, several things water the separation of this statistics: on the one hand, these crimes were not counted alone, but are a combination of two other statistics, the criminal crime “Rape Paragraf 177 paragraphs 6, 7, 8 of the criminal code” combined with the filter “suspect: No “.

Accordingly, it cannot be clearly seen whether all of these cases were actually a group rape or whether there were accomplices in addition to the main accomplice who, for example, covered or covered up the crime. However, this should not massively influence the statistics.

In addition, the PKS basically relies on the stand at the end of the police investigation, i.e. not perpetrators, but suspect. The Federal Government emphasizes: “Criminal offenses are evaluated differently by the police, especially because of the different levels of investigation, than by the public prosecutor or the courts.” So cases could also flow into the statistics that lead to an acquittal, for example, in court.

Another difficulty in Merz ‘statement: He speaks of “daily group rapes from the asylum seeker’s milieu.” He apparently means people who came to Germany as refugees. However, there are no nationwide figures for this. However, figures from Bavaria suggest that his presentation – at least – is exaggerated.

According to the police, 45 of all suspects were German in Bavaria in 2023, 51 were foreigners: twelve Syrians, seven Romanians, four Iraqis, the others are spread over other countries. The police captured 21 of the suspects as “immigrants”. This includes all refugees with different protection status: for example, asylum seekers, asylum seekers, tolerated or people who are illegally in Germany. This was reported by the Bavarian Radio.

The other foreigners are, for example, migrant workers, also from the EU, recognized asylum seekers or tourists. In Bavaria, half of the suspects are not from the “milieu of asylum seekers”, but around a quarter.

If Merz refers to the PKS in his statement, he mixes – knowingly or unknowingly – non -German suspects (i.e. foreigners) and asylum seekers. Merz therefore indicates an existing problem, but the exact accusation of asylum seekers, on the other hand, is at least not provable.