Despite criticism from his own party, the Chancellery and the Protestant Church, CDU leader Friedrich Merz does not want to correct his controversial comment about asylum seekers visiting the dentist. “The entire republic doesn’t have to gasp if you say something clearly and clearly on this topic,” he said at the weekend at the state party conference of the Saxony-Anhalt CDU in Magdeburg. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), on the other hand, called on Merz to adopt a different tone in migration policy. “What Mr. Merz presented does not correspond to the legal situation in Germany,” he said on Südwestrundfunk (SWR). “I think you should be more careful with your words.”
Merz said on Wednesday in the “Welt-Talk” program about the migration situation: “They go crazy, the people, when they see that 300,000 asylum seekers have been rejected, they don’t leave the country, they get the full benefits, they get the full medical care. They “We’re sitting at the doctor’s and having our teeth redone, and the German citizens next door can’t get any appointments.” This was met with objections, including from doctors. There is no preference for refugees when it comes to appointments.
In addition, around 80 percent of the 304,000 rejected asylum seekers who were registered in Germany at the end of 2022 live on a tolerated status. They cannot be deported because the country of origin does not cooperate with the repatriation, documents are missing or they are ill. Asylum seekers only have a full right to health care after 18 months.
Sharp criticism from the Protestant Church
Braunschweig’s Protestant regional bishop Christoph Meyns sharply distanced himself from the CDU leader’s statement on Sunday. “This is unbearable,” he said at the Thanksgiving service in Braunschweig Cathedral. Merz is adopting the AfD’s political style. The deputy head of the CDU social wing, Christian Bäumler, had previously asked Merz to correct himself or to forego running for chancellor. “Merz’s derailments are incompatible with the Christian view of humanity. Many CDU members are ashamed of their party leader,” he told the German Press Agency.
Former Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU), however, spoke out in favor of a reduction in social benefits. “We have to realize that we can no longer afford this asylum policy,” he said Time online. “If we offer a higher level of social benefits, we shouldn’t be surprised that people try to come to Germany if possible.”
Debate about benefits in kind for asylum seekers
The FDP once again came up with proposals to provide asylum seekers with prepaid cards instead of money. Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) is skeptical about this proposal. The conversion into benefits in kind involves a lot of bureaucratic effort, she said Picture on Sunday. Furthermore, the change is already possible today. “Then why doesn’t the Union do it where it governs?” asked Schulze.
The Greens pushed for asylum seekers to be allowed to work more quickly. “We finally need a complete abolition of the many still existing work bans for refugees. That makes sense and can be implemented in the short term,” said Green Party leader Katharina Dröge in newspapers from the Funke media group. Her deputy Andreas Audretsch added that the CDU and CSU had enforced absurd work bans for decades. This prevents integration and harms the economy.