Status: 12/22/2022 2:51 p.m
The federal CDU has distanced itself from the statements made by Bautzen district administrator Witschas on asylum seekers. The SPD does not go far enough: they are again demanding “a firewall against the right” and a word from Union leader Merz.
The CDU leadership has rejected the controversial statements made by the district administrator of Bautzen on the accommodation of refugees. Party leader Friedrich Merz and the party executive “strongly distanced themselves from the choice of words by the Bautzen district administrator,” explained CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja. People seeking protection in Germany “deserve our help, our care” and should be “treated with respect and decency”.
The Bautzen district administrator Udo Witschas (CDU) published a Christmas message on Facebook on Tuesday, in which he particularly opposed the accommodation of asylum seekers in gyms in Hoyerswerda, Saxony. “It is not our intention to let sport – whether school or leisure – bleed for this asylum policy,” said the Saxon politician. “We want to avoid that at all costs.”
District council rejected new homes for asylum seekers
Witschas also opposed the accommodation of asylum seekers in apartment buildings, citing a “endangerment of social peace”. He referred to people “who don’t know our culture, who don’t know our regulations”.
In mid-December, the district council of Bautzen, in which the AfD is equal to the largest fraction with the CDU, rejected the establishment of another home for asylum seekers in Hoyerswerda. Since then, the district administration there has been faced with the problem of organizing new accommodation for asylum seekers as quickly as possible.
Czaja: Dignity must also be “untouchable in language”
“As a Union, we have a very clear, unambiguous and deeply humane attitude that is supported by the dignity of every human being,” CDU General Secretary Czaja wrote on Twitter. This must “also be untouchable in the language”.
The deputy CDU federal chairman Karin Prien wrote on Twitter that such language and politics were “not worthy of a Christian Democrat”. She could “only be ashamed” and apologize, explained the Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education.
Faeser: “Firewall to the right must stand”
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) now called on Twitter that “the firewall against the right” must be in place. “Nobody defeats right-wing extremists by taking over their positions – and even those who do not clearly distance themselves strengthen the extremists.”
Against the background of the Ukraine conflict, Germany has shown this year that it treats refugees with “high solidarity”.
SPD demands reaction from Merz
The SPD in the Bundestag asked von Merz to take a position on Witscha himself. Even the “late” and “half-hearted” reaction to the raid on a suspected terrorist network of “Reichsbürger” “raised the suspicion again that his firewall against the right is actually a rickety garden fence,” said Deputy SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese. Merz cannot let others speak for him “so as not to alienate right-wing voters”.
SPD parliamentary secretary Katja Mast accused Merz of tolerating “the increasing solidarity of the AfD and CDU in East Germany”. This is “extremely dangerous,” she told the “Rheinische Post”.
Bautzen CDU voted for AfD application
CDU General Secretary Czaja had already criticized representatives of his party in Bautzen for approving an AfD application in the district council at the beginning of the week. Accordingly, refugees who are required to leave the country and those without a residence permit should no longer receive integration services unless they have a “clarified identity” and can demonstrate “intensive efforts to integrate”.
Before taking office, CDU leader Merz announced a “fire wall” against the AfD at the end of last year. He threatened the state associations “especially in the east” with immediate party exclusion procedures if there was any cooperation with the AfD.