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Ramelow on migration: “State and municipalities at the limit”
According to Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left), smuggling crime must be combated with “European-African solidarity”. photo
© Bodo Schackow/dpa
With a view to the increasing number of refugees in Europe, Thuringia’s head of government warns against “regular talk” from the AfD. There is a need for solidarity-based distribution and faster work permits.
However, Ramelow rejected the Union’s demands for stationary controls at the German borders in the east. The European Schengen area, where no permanent checks on persons take place, must continue to apply. “Deploying police in the Thuringian Forest just for show purposes doesn’t help.”
“Fairy Tale of the Threat from Refugees”
Ramelow demanded that the solidarity distribution system in Europe should work and that smuggling crime should be combated with a “European-African solidarity”. The background is that every year tens of thousands of migrants from North Africa undertake the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean towards Europe.
The politician further demanded: “And everyone who is here should have a work permit after three months so that everyone can and must look after themselves. Then the myth about the threat from refugees will stop.”
According to figures from the Free State, 4,055 asylum seekers arrived in Thuringia in 2021, and 6,199 in 2022. In the first half of 2023, more than 3,900 new asylum applications were submitted. According to the Königstein key, around 2.7 percent of all refugees arriving in the Federal Republic are allocated to the federal state.
“Talk at regular meetings causes massive damage”
Ramelow sharply criticized AfD politician Björn Höcke, who leads the right-wing party in Thuringia. He wants the EU to die. “But our companies are at home in the European markets.” A large part of Thuringia’s economic power is based on these relationships.
“We mustn’t allow ourselves to be ruined by Mr. Höcke drawing images of the EU as enemies. This regular talk is causing us great emotional and ultimately massive economic damage. That’s why it’s right to deal with the AfD in terms of content, not in blanket images of the enemy .” You can’t get anywhere with slogans like “It’s all Nazis in the East,” said Ramelow. “We must not allow the thread of conversation with the citizens to be broken. It is not the AfD that has solutions for their problems.”