vVice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and the CDU top politicians Friedrich Merz and Carsten Linnemann have declared their willingness to implement broad-based reforms in migration policy. Habeck said in an interview with the editorial network Germany that all “democratic parties” were obliged to “help find solutions”. CDU leader Merz reaffirmed the Union’s willingness to find solutions in consensus with the traffic light coalition, while Secretary General Linnemann brought a “joining ranks” like the asylum compromise in 1993 into play.
Regarding asylum policy, Habeck said that the search for solutions in migration policy was necessary to prevent “right-wing populism from exploiting this issue”. Given the current situation, the Economics Minister and former Green Party leader sees many municipalities at their breaking point. At a conference, mayors and district administrators reported to him that they could “hardly and soon no longer be able to guarantee accommodation.”
CDU leader Merz said on Friday in a live interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine” that the Union parties were ready to solve the problems constructively together with the federal government. Merz called for a stricter approach to deportations – and cited Social Democratic-governed Denmark as a role model.
“Away from the discussion about the AfD”
The Danes are “very consistent” and there are “only benefits in kind” for those being deported. Those affected would “only be put in collective accommodation” and “then would be consistently deported”. By changing course in asylum policy, the Danish government was able to reduce the success of right-wing national parties from over 20 to less than three percent, said Merz. This could also be achieved in Germany.
CDU General Secretary Linnemann offered the traffic light coalition a cross-party consensus on asylum policy. Germany needs “a consensus like in 1993,” said Linnemann in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In 1993, the then federal government made up of the Union parties and the FDP as well as the then opposition SPD agreed on the so-called asylum compromise, which resulted in the fundamental right access to asylum was significantly restricted.
Linnemann said he wanted to “move away from these discussions that only revolve around the AfD.” A strengthening of the “democratic center” in Germany can only be achieved “if we all tackle the issue of migration together now”. It can be seen all over Europe: “The moment that people not only talk about it, but also take effective action, the right-wing radicals are marginalized.”
Habeck is ready for pragmatic solutions
Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Habeck announced quick help from the federal government to the RND. The municipalities need financial support, and in order to relieve the burden on the immigration authorities, the traffic light coalition will also make it possible for the residence permits for Ukrainians to be “extended across the board instead of individually”.
In addition, bureaucratic hurdles in accessing the labor market must be reduced, said Habeck. Given the shortage of skilled workers in the country, it is “in our interest that people who are already here can make their contribution to the common good and earn their own living.”
Habeck told the RND that the Greens were prepared to find pragmatic solutions in order to reduce the influx at the EU’s external borders. His party in the federal government agreed to a Common European Asylum System, which, among other things, provides for asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders. It was “difficult for many Greens,” he said. But his party knows “that we have a responsibility for cohesion in this country.”