They would have loved to saw a piece out of the ring, this rust-red, twelve-meter-high work of art that has stood on the edge of the old botanical garden on Karl-Stützel-Platz since 1996. In any case, an opening in the sculpture by the Italian sculptor Mauro Staccioli would have been perfect for the start of the non-partisan campaign “Stay open!” on Monday morning, says Agnes Fuchsloch, one of the initiators. For the campaign, the representative of the refugee contact point Bellevue di Monaco and her colleagues from other organizations came up with an open O as a logo, an open circle. But because you can’t mill out a piece of steel cement somewhere without a great deal of effort, they quickly wrapped the work in colorful ribbons and simply gave it a new meaning. “We are dedicating the memorial to an open, solidary society in Munich,” said Fuchsloch as she symbolically cut the ribbons.
The action alliance is essentially about a different asylum policy than the one that has just been decided by the member states of the European Union (EU) and has also been criticized in this country by the Greens, after all the governing party. “We all agree that European asylum law needs reform,” says Fuchsloch. The so-called Dublin procedure, according to which refugees have to apply for asylum in the EU country they entered first, has failed; it cements the problem in the peripheral states and at the external borders of the EU. With the agreement that has now been reached on increased isolation from those seeking protection, however, everything would only get worse, and Fuchsloch believes that “fundamental human rights would also be undermined”.
Promotion of solidarity and openness
Jana Weidhaase from the Bavarian Refugee Council also criticizes the compromise: “It will not result in asylum seekers being distributed fairly.” She admits that the alliance probably no longer has any realistic influence to change the agreement between the EU states. That is why the campaign is also about promoting solidarity and openness. It’s about taking away the fears of immigrants from the local population and more strongly emphasizing their benefits for society. “We want to show that there is a willingness to integrate people,” summarizes Agnes Fuchsloch.
The first highlight of the campaign will be a demo on July 16 at Marienplatz. “We hope to be able to mobilize a lot of people,” says Fuchsloch. So far, more than 160 private individuals and around 100 organizations have joined the campaign, mostly initiatives from Munich and Bavaria. One of the largest and most well-known is the Diakonie Munich, but all in all there is a colorful, nationwide mix from A for “Afghanistan Not Safe Cologne Bonn” to W for “Wohnprojekt Ligsalz8”. Various refugee councils from Munich, Augsburg and even Thuringia support the cause, as do the “Over-the-Teller-Community” from Frankfurt and Hamburg and the “Lion Fans Against the Right”, the politically committed supporters of the football club TSV 1860 Munich.