Green Party politician
Kretschmann: We have to limit irregular migration
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. photo
© Anna Ross/dpa
The debate about the high number of refugees also concerns the Greens. The party’s only prime minister is calling for containment. The party leader is pushing for help for the municipalities.
Kretschmann warned that the fact that the Greens were thrown out of government in Hesse should wake up his party. “The course in migration policy is crucial: let off the brakes when it comes to curbing irregular migration.”
The right to asylum should not be undermined, said Kretschmann. “Humanity can only exist in order. Asylum means: those who are persecuted can come here. But that also means: those who are not persecuted cannot come through the asylum law.” If the Green Youth now fears isolation, one can only ask: “Where do they live? We have just taken in a million Ukrainian refugees.” Baden-Württemberg alone has taken in twice as many Ukrainian refugees as France. “This is the opposite of isolation,” said Kretschmann.
Warning against inaction
If the state does nothing about the migration issue, the impression will arise that the state is incapable of acting. “This is the most dangerous message of all! It drives people to the right,” said Kretschmann.
The Baden-Württemberg Refugee Council criticized Kretschmann. Demands to limit irregular migration “hide the fact that it is precisely the absence of legal escape routes that forces people to take life-threatening escape routes to Europe.” In order to be able to make use of the right to asylum in Europe, people would first have to flee to Europe, the Refugee Council announced on Monday. The migration debate ignores the fact that around three quarters of the refugees arriving in Germany have the right to protection. “These are particularly people from Syria and Afghanistan.”
Lang: Name pseudo solutions
The Green Party leader Lang warned on Monday morning on Deutschlandfunk against a hardening of the debate. “I think that we have sometimes experienced a shift within this debate, whereby what sounds the harshest is suddenly seen as the most realistic, even though it actually has nothing to do with reality,” she criticized. “One example of this is the upper limit debate that we have had for weeks now. I could name numerous others here.” The green course in migration policy consists of naming pseudo-solutions and going along with pragmatic solutions.
“I would say that we should now focus the debate on what has the most benefit, especially for the municipalities that have to implement it locally – and not on what sounds the hardest,” said Lang.