The asylum debate in Germany continues to intensify. The Saxon Prime Minister Kretschmer now considers previous proposals for a limit to be too high. Finance Minister Lindner wants to restrict services.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has tightened his call for an upper limit for asylum seekers. “Currently, not even 200,000 per year are possible,” said the CDU politician after a meeting with Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner in Berlin.
The Saxon state government held a foreign cabinet meeting in Berlin, which was attended by Lindner, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil and the Federal Government’s Eastern Representative, Carsten Schneider.
Kretschmer referred to the admission of around a million Ukrainian refugees and the tense situation in asylum accommodation and schools. The federal government has ignored these problems for a long time. Now we have to talk about tougher measures than six months or nine months ago, says Kretschmer – for example about cutting benefits. The message must be sent to people with little chance of asylum: “There is no value in coming to Germany.”
Lindner does not give a number for the upper limit
Regarding the discussion about the realignment of the financing of asylum costs, Kretschmer said: “The numbers have to come down. We’re not going to settle that with money.” He agrees with Finance Minister Lindner on this.
When asked by journalists, Christian Lindner himself did not want to give a figure for an upper limit. But there must be a critical inventory of all benefits for asylum seekers, said the FDP politician. He expressly included access to statutory health insurance, for example for rejected asylum seekers.
In May, Kretschmer suggested fundamental reforms in asylum policy. He called for a discussion about further restrictions on the fundamental right to asylum. A little later, the parliamentary managing director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei, proposed an upper limit of 200,000 people per year.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser rejected the proposal for an annual cap in September. International law speaks against it, said the SPD politician in the ARD-Broadcast Anne Will. Among other things, she referred to the Geneva Refugee Convention. With upper limits you only fool people into thinking that things are getting better, said the minister.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz also described the discussion about an upper limit in September as “hot air”.
Federal-state consultation at the beginning of November
The federal states currently assume that significantly more than 300,000 new asylum seekers will have come to Germany by the end of 2023. Last week they put forward demands for better financing, faster asylum procedures and the switch from cash payouts to payment cards for asylum seekers.
Also last week, the federal government agreed on the basic principles for further asylum reforms. The aim is to make deportations easier by restricting the rights of those affected, but at the same time to make access to the labor market easier for asylum seekers.
On Friday, Chancellor Scholz also met with Union faction leader Friedrich Merz and the Prime Ministers of Hesse and Lower Saxony, Boris Rhein and Stephan Weil, to discuss asylum policy. There were no concrete decisions. At the beginning of November, the Chancellor will again consult with the federal states.