migration
Leading culture, upper limit: CSU calls for tough integration course
Markus Söder’s party is calling for a rethink of integration policy in Germany. photo
© picture alliance / dpa
For years, no tough demands on asylum policy were heard from the CSU. Now it is over. A new strategy paper from Munich speaks an extremely clear language – with many old tones.
Leading culture, upper limits, more education and transfer of values, no foreign financing for mosques, tough sanctions against anti-Semites: In a decidedly conservative position paper, the CSU in the Bavarian state parliament is rethinking integration policy in Germany.
The draft of the two-page paper, which is available to the German Press Agency in Munich, takes up many of the points that the CSU has already represented on migration policy in recent years.
“We have to completely rethink integration – because Islamism and anti-Semitism on our streets show that we have failed here with the red-green multi-cultural cuddly course,” said parliamentary group leader Klaus Holetschek of the dpa in Munich. A 180-degree turnaround in migration policy is not enough.
Paper will be discussed with Ahmad Mansour
“We must demand that the migrants who come to us accept our dominant culture,” says the draft of the paper. The paper will be discussed today at the CSU parliamentary group meeting with the author and extremism researcher Ahmad Mansour. The guiding culture included “in particular democracy, freedom, the rule of law, equality, tolerance and a positive commitment to our country and, of course, Israel’s inviolable right to exist.” Integration means adopting the values of the country of immigration.
“The federal government must finally focus on our guiding culture and our values and demand them as the basis for our coexistence – just as we have already anchored it in the Bavarian Integration Act,” said Holetschek.
The number of immigrants must be limited in such a way “that there is sufficient capacity but also a high level of acceptance for reception and help,” the paper continues. In addition, “illegal migration” must be combated using all permissible means. “Otherwise, social peace in our country is at risk and the general willingness of citizens to help will decrease significantly, while right-wing populist and right-wing extremist views would increase noticeably in the future.”
Tough course towards anti-Semites
In the paper, the CSU takes a tough line towards anti-Semites, including a change to the Basic Law. “Anyone who commits anti-Semitic crimes cannot become a German citizen,” it says. Criminals with dual citizenship must have their German citizenship revoked “if they have committed a serious criminal offense.” Action must be taken against anti-Semitism “with all the means of the constitutional state.” This included harsher penalties and, if possible, changes to the right to assembly “to make it easier to restrict and ban anti-Jewish demonstrations.”
In the paper, the CSU called for more transparency regarding the financing of mosque communities: “Foreign financing of mosques and cultural institutions must be prevented. It must not be the case that foreign, sometimes dictatorial, states spread their propaganda in Germany.”
Targeted language support for foreign children
For foreign children who live in Germany, targeted language support and values are also needed outside of schools. Parents are also required to speak German at home and teach German culture, it is said. “We need a political education offensive for students with a migration background.”
Holetschek can imagine further steps: “Anyone who comes to us not only has to accept our values, but also be prepared to live according to them.” There should be no bans on thinking. “I could definitely imagine that we would also critically question the wearing of headscarves in schools.”