After the failure of the migration talks between the traffic light government and the Union, FDP leader Christian Lindner is calling for a new attempt at the highest level. Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz should negotiate with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and himself personally, Lindner wrote on Platform X. “The Union’s cancellation of the asylum summit must not be the last word.” He added: “We will solve the problem together.” Germany needs control and consistency when it comes to migration.
Other politicians in the traffic light coalition accused the Union of irresponsibility and a lack of team play for breaking off the talks, while the largest opposition force accused the government of a lack of will to limit illegal migration. In an emotional speech, Chancellor Scholz himself sharply attacked CDU leader Merz. The dispute is also likely to shape today’s speech duel between the two top politicians during the budget discussions in the Bundestag.
Merz had previously declared the migration talks with the government a failure. Scholz and Merz did not attend the two meetings last week and on Tuesday. The traffic light coalition’s representatives included Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), and the Union’s parliamentary manager Thorsten Frei (CDU).
Scholz accuses Union of “provincial stage acting”
With regard to the Union’s actions, Scholz said in the evening at the summer party of the conservative Seeheimer Circle of the SPD: “It was already decided beforehand that we would leave this round.” And that was “embarrassing for those who are responsible for it,” criticized the Chancellor. “Leadership looks different. Character, honesty and firmness are what this country needs. And not such small sleight of hand and provincial stage acting.”
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also criticized the Union. “Obviously not all of the gentlemen who attended the talks in the Interior Ministry were interested in team play,” the Green Party politician told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Green Party leader Omid Nouripour spoke of a “farce” on the news portal “t-online”. “If they find their way back to seriousness, we can continue talking,” he said on ARD’s “Tagesthemen.”
Union calls for “stop sign at the borders”
The traffic light coalition and the Union had started new talks on migration policy, in which state representatives were also involved, after the suspected Islamist knife attack in Solingen. After the second round, Merz criticized the coalition for apparently not seeing itself in a position to comprehensively reject refugees at the German borders – he had previously made this a condition. “This means that the attempt to go down a common path has failed,” he added. He missed leadership from Chancellor Scholz.
“Today shows once again that the federal government is not ready for a turning point in migration,” said Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) to the German Press Agency. “We need a real stop sign at the German borders because the limit has been exceeded,” Rhein demanded in the “Heute Journal” on ZDF.
What Interior Minister Faeser has proposed
During the meeting, Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser proposed a model to bring asylum seekers who have already been registered elsewhere more quickly to the European states responsible for them. Justice Minister Buschmann said that keeping people in the border area would be more effective than pushing them back across the green border, where it is to be expected that those pushed back would then make another attempt to enter the country elsewhere. According to Faeser, the traffic light government now wants to pursue these plans without the Union.
Hesse’s head of government Rhein, currently also chairman of the Conference of Minister Presidents, replied: “The proposal envisages that migrants first enter the country. From then on, it becomes enormously complicated – and burdens the judiciary and federal police with a complex, lengthy procedure and little chance of success.” He spoke of a “bureaucratic monster”. Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD), on the other hand, sees the federal government’s proposal as a “viable way to reduce the number of arrivals and the incentives for onward travel from other EU countries to Germany”.
Representatives of the SPD and the Greens raised concerns under European law about the Union’s proposal to reject people who are applying for asylum and are not subject to an entry ban directly at the border.
FDP calls for return to the negotiating table
The chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, said that during the talks an offer had been made to “introduce the Union’s model, which provides for simple rejections, at certain border points.” Nevertheless, the Union left the talks. “The CDU and CSU should return to the negotiating table and implement this together with us,” demanded Dürr.
Markus Lewe (CDU), President of the Association of German Cities, criticized the fact that the talks ended without any results, saying it was not a good sign. “But we hope that the door will not remain closed for good,” he told the newspapers of the Funke Media Group.
Exchange of blows expected in the Bundestag
Scholz and Merz will meet this morning in the traditional general debate on the budget for the coming year. This is usually opened by the opposition leader, Merz. Only then does it become the chancellor’s turn, followed by the other factions. The general debate is the high point of the budget week in the Bundestag and is traditionally used by the opposition to settle accounts with government policy.
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