migration
CSU reacts cautiously to asylum push by CDU politicians
CDU politician Thorsten Frei wants to replace the individual’s right to asylum with quotas for taking in refugees in Europe. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
More than 200,000 asylum applications in Germany. The municipalities groan. Can the asylum request by the CDU MP Frei bring relief? At least not in the short term, according to the sister party CSU.
“It’s an exciting proposal. Whether it can be implemented in the short term and whether it actually brings the desired income is – I think – still open,” said Söder at the retreat of the CSU state group in Andechs Monastery in Upper Bavaria. Bavaria’s demands, such as increased border controls, would bring “a faster return”.
The federal government made it clear that it does not want to shake the individual right to asylum. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit answered a question from a journalist in Berlin: “I am not aware of such considerations within the federal government, comma, and would also surprise me, period.”
Thorsten Frei, who is the first parliamentary secretary of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and thus has a prominent position, had proposed a fundamentally different asylum model. In a guest article for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, he called for the right of individuals to apply for asylum on European soil to be abolished. It should be replaced by quotas for taking in refugees in Europe. These 300,000 to 400,000 refugees per year should be selected directly from abroad and then distributed in Europe.
CSU wants rapid limitation of immigration numbers
Dobrindt said at the retreat in Andechs Monastery that there were two different levels of discussion. Frei’s initiative is about how to change the asylum system in Europe in the long term. “This discussion exists. And Thorsten Frei made an important contribution to it.” However, the CSU is acutely concerned with how to currently limit the number of people moving in. These are instruments within the existing system, such as stronger protection of the EU’s external borders, asylum procedures right at the borders, reducing incentives for asylum services and more agreements with refugees’ transit countries.
Frei’s move had been sharply criticized by the traffic light parties. Criticism also came from the AfD and the left.
The domestic policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Alexander Throm (CDU), on the other hand, told the German Press Agency that Frei was right to point out “that our migration system is currently causing completely wrong conditions”. People handed themselves over to smugglers, sometimes crossing half the world “and many safe countries” in order to choose Europe as their “desired place”. Unfortunately, the principle applies: “The strong arrive, the weak fall by the wayside.” This effect was never intended, neither by the United Nations nor by the German Basic Law.
Free: Solution approach for “objective problem”
Frei defended his concept as a response to the rapidly increasing number of asylum seekers. “If you take the year 2022 alone, when around 1.3 million people came to Germany in need of protection and applied for asylum here, then you have to say it’s a number that you certainly can’t repeat every year, because that’s the Performance would also overwhelm society’s ability to integrate,” he said on RTL/ntv “early start”. He emphasized: “We have an objective problem that many people in our country identify as a big challenge and a big problem.”
According to figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf), 217,774 people in Germany applied for asylum last year – 47 percent more than in the previous year and more than at any time since 2016. Most came from Syria (70,976), Afghanistan (36,358), Turkey (23,938), Iraq and Georgia. In addition, one million war refugees from Ukraine were admitted without having to apply for asylum.
CSU boss Söder emphasized: “Of course we say yes to help and yes to humanity. That’s not a question. But the municipalities in Germany are still overwhelmed.” A clear limit on immigration is needed. “We want skilled workers to immigrate, but not for social security.” The country was overwhelmed by debates about whether 1.5 million immigrants were needed every year. It is already difficult to keep up with the construction of daycare centers, schools or apartments.