Olaf Scholz can look very determined and serious when he wants to emphasize something. “We finally have to deport people on a large scale,” he now has that Mirror said, garnished with grim photos of the Chancellor. It is a sentence that until recently was unthinkable for a Chancellor of the SPD. And for the first time in his term in office, harsh internal criticism came promptly. This is what the Jusos think in the direction of Scholz: “Deportations on a large scale” – that is a demand “directly from the vocabulary of the right-wing mob.”
First of all, it is a rhetorical change of course in migration policy; he does not name any concrete new measures, but wants to respond to the increased number of asylum seekers and immigrants with more controls at the borders, more safe countries of origin and faster procedures.
Scholz talks longer about migration than about steps to combat the downturn
How strong the pressure has become on the Chancellor and the continued existence of his traffic light coalition was already evident in a speech on the evening of October 11th. After the worst SPD state election results to date in Hesse and Bavaria, Scholz was invited to an economic conference of the SPD parliamentary group. And he didn’t spend the longest time talking about his measures against the downturn, but rather about migration.
Scholz emphasized at the conference that only 1.5 percent of applicants could rely on the individual right to asylum, “most of the others have other reasons for protection – which we accept from international or European treaties.” And he added: “There are currently far too many coming to Europe and Germany irregularly.” In addition to a million people from Ukraine, there could be at least another 300,000 migrants from other countries this year, after 240,000 people last year. When it comes to such figures, no one who has political responsibility should shy away from the sentence “that there are more than can be easily managed (…) and it is therefore important that the numbers be reduced.”
“Some people act as if this is the only issue left,” say two critics
Now he has said it again more clearly. The two SPD members of the Bundestag, Hakan Demir and Rasha Nasr, do not agree with his words at all: “Deportations are only a small part of the solution. We have high inflation, an economy that is crying out for help and a federal budget that is inadequate,” they write in a joint message. Migration is just one of many issues, “some people act as if this is the only issue left, but we have so much to do.”
Demir, MP for Berlin-Neukölln, said at the request of the South German newspaper: “All-German politics has gone astray.” The whole time there are 300,000 rejected asylum seekers who are actually obliged to leave the country, but that only makes up 0.3 percent of the total population. “And we act as if the issue of deportations solves 100 percent of our problems.” He called on the Chancellor not to take the wrong course out of fear of the AfD: “I am worried about the course of the SPD. In word and deed, social democracy should always stand for social policy, for an open society and for cohesion. “
Philipp Türmer, candidate for the Federal Chairmanship of the Jusos, becomes even clearer on the X platform“It’s no use joining in with the song of the right,” he writes, referring to the Chancellor. “Build apartments, abolish employment bans, properly finance municipalities, allow lane changes. That would help.” His conclusion: “I could vomit at this quote.” And if Scholz is in Mirror say that the SPD is fully behind his line, then they want to see that at the federal party conference in December.
There is no doubt about the need for skilled workers
However, given the situation, large parts of the SPD are more with Scholz. And the Chancellor also emphasizes that the claim to humanity should not be compromised; we just need to speed up on issues such as the deportation of rejected asylum seekers. There should be no compromises when it comes to legal ways to come to Germany, because there is no doubt about the need for skilled workers, especially when the baby boomers are retiring.
Criticism of Scholz’s statements on asylum policy also came from the ranks of the Greens. “30 years after 1993, we should have learned that sealing off, deterring and deporting is not a migration policy, but an economic stimulus program for racism and right-wing radicals,” wrote the Green Party politician Jürgen Trittin on X. However, the former Federal Environment Minister and current member of the Bundestag was alone in his parliamentary group with this criticism.
When asked, Green Party leader Britta Haßelmann only commented on migration policy in general and avoided criticism of the Chancellor. Responsible politics “needs humanity and order.” The Greens are about responsibility and solidarity. “And it’s also about humanity.”
Katharina Stolla, who was elected at the weekend together with Svenja Appuhn as the new leadership duo of the Green Youth, put it much more sharply. The migration policy of the traffic light coalition is an “inhumane isolation policy,” she said. The Greens should “finally stop the disenfranchisement of refugees”.
Scholz can, however, count on support from the FDP. The Liberals have been calling for a stricter line in asylum policy for a long time and have assigned the Greens the role of putting the brakes on. If Trittin accuses the Chancellor that his considerations for dealing with the migration crisis are encouraging racists and right-wing radicals, then that would be “just indecent,” said deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki. He advises the Greens not to overexcite their opinion and to stop putting the Chancellor in a dirty corner. “Ultimately, it is the Greens themselves who want to create facts against the majority of people in the country with their quixotic position on migration policy,” said Kubicki.