While at the federal level the failure of the Western alliance in Afghanistan is still being debated and the responsibility of the black-red federal government is being discussed, local politicians in the Munich district face the responsibility of offering protection to refugees from the country. Cross-party readiness is expressed to accept people from Afghanistan. “In an emergency it is natural to help,” says Ottobrunn’s mayor Thomas Loderer (CSU).
For Florian Schardt, parliamentary group spokesman for the SPD in the district council, it is also a matter of course to take in people from Afghanistan now. “We are now in the specific situation of having to help,” says Schardt. “People have trusted the West and for that reason alone must not be abandoned. We owe it to the people.” He is also sure that both the district and the municipalities are willing to take in those seeking protection, to accommodate them in a dignified manner and to look after them. “And we as a district can do that too,” says Schardt.
Sauerlachs mayor Barbara Bogner (UBV) confirms this willingness. “In any case, I will not let anyone down,” she says. “If someone stands in front of my door, I will not slam it for them, and if we can help, we will help too.” Her municipality had already proven this in 2015, when large movements of refugees brought thousands of people to the district: “We were one of the first municipalities to set up accommodation for 70 people.” How many people seeking protection this time and at what point in time can be expected cannot yet be estimated, according to the Sauerlach town hall chief. From their point of view, structures must also be created in the region around Afghanistan, in neighboring countries, in order to accommodate refugees there in a safe and humane manner.
The fact that Germany now has a special responsibility, says Claudia Köhler, Member of the Green Party, who already has a lot to do with Afghan refugees in Unterhaching and has brought them to work. “We now need solidarity from everyone with the people. The municipalities and districts must also help,” says Köhler. “A lot of people helped with this mission in Afghanistan, you can’t let these people down.” Now the rescue operation on the ground has top priority, says the MP and tries to spread a little optimism: “Of course we hope that many will make it out.”
Kirchheim’s mayor Maximilian Böltl (CSU) says that women and children in particular from Afghanistan now need a “safe haven” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/landkreismuenchen/. “Of course we have to help and the people are not allowed to Leave alone with the new violent regime, “said Böltl. At the same time, says the Christian Socialist, “asylum applications that have already been rejected by refugees from other regions must now be fully processed all the more quickly so that capacities for threatened people from Afghanistan are free”. His Ottobrunn counterpart Loderer brings a specific project into play for his municipality. If refugees from Afghanistan actually come to the district, he can imagine using the currently vacant Hotel Pazific in his community “temporarily” as accommodation – “for a maximum of two years,” as Loderer says. Because an emergency is “always only temporary”.
SPD parliamentary group leader Schardt calls for an honest and ideology-free debate on migration in Germany. The social democrat says that the issues of flight and migration must be discussed openly and honestly: “Not always when something happens in the world.” It takes people’s trust that politics has this important area under control. Sauerlach’s mayor Bogner is also concerned with the fact that this is not the case in Afghanistan. “Because it is clear that we as municipalities have to accommodate the people, who else should do it?” Says Bogner.
The state capital has made an offer to accommodate refugees: Mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) has told the federal government that Munich will take in 260 people from Afghanistan – the Greens and CSU have agreed to this.