Finance Minister Lindner wants to reduce benefits for asylum seekers. These would act like a “magnet,” he said Report from Berlin. He also held the states responsible for the cuts.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner wants to implement his demand for cuts in benefits for asylum seekers in the government. In the interview in Report from Berlin The FDP leader said that he and his party colleague, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, made the suggestion because it was obvious that the “welfare state, with its very high benefits compared to Europe, acts like a magnet.” That has to be switched off.
Lindner pointed out that the benefits for asylum seekers are paid for by the states and municipalities. He would understand if the states demanded that the federal government contribute to the costs of migration. “Conversely, they must take responsibility for reducing the numbers.”
The Finance Minister emphasized that the number of asylum seekers could be reduced by reducing the level of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act to a responsible level. “This isn’t about a shabby competition. But it can’t stay the way it is now.”
“Reductions to virtually zero”
In a guest article for “Welt am Sonntag”, Lindner and Buschmann had previously advocated that cash payments for asylum seekers should be replaced by a payment card and benefits in kind. They also called for cuts to benefits. “Under particularly strict conditions, a reduction in benefits to virtually ‘zero’ would be conceivable,” they wrote.
They suggested this for people “who are entitled to humanitarian protection in the EU state responsible for them under the Dublin rules, but who refuse to take advantage of the protection there. In these cases, it would be conceivable to extend the benefit to the to reduce reimbursement of necessary travel costs to the responsible state.”
In the Report from Berlin Lindner emphasized that the proposals were about asylum seekers who were not fleeing civil war or natural disasters. These would come for economic reasons and actually have no right of residence. “They may not want to work in Germany at all, but instead want to use our welfare state. And that must be stopped,” said Lindner.
Scholz is pushing for more deportations
Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently announced in a “Spiegel” interview that he would take tougher action against rejected asylum seekers and limit irregular migration in Germany. Last Wednesday, he and his cabinet ministers introduced a so-called repatriation improvement law. This is intended to reduce the number of deportations that fail in the short term. The plans still have to be approved by the Bundestag.
At the beginning of September, the Chancellor had already offered the Union cooperation in the form of a “Germany Pact” to modernize the country. Merz and the Union had pushed for the issue of migration to be the focus. Since then, there has been a first top-level meeting between Scholz, Merz and representatives of the federal states, and letters have also gone back and forth between the opposition leader and the Chancellor.
On Monday a week from now, the federal and state governments could agree on further measures on migration policy at a conference between the Prime Ministers and Scholz. Among other things, the question being discussed is whether cash payments for asylum seekers should be replaced by a payment card and benefits in kind.