Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder is calling for “a turnaround in migration policy” and “a German pact against uncontrolled immigration.” In the BR24 interview, the CSU leader warned that the number of asylum applications this year had increased by almost 80 percent compared to the previous year. The old upper limit of 200,000 asylum seekers worked until the traffic light government. That’s why a fundamental change based on the Austrian model is now needed. The number of asylum applications there has been halved, explained Söder, who first commented on the issue in “Bild am Sonntag”.
Because municipalities are overwhelmed with accommodation, daycare and school places, according to the CSU boss, the federal government should, following the Bavarian model, control the borders better, consistently deport criminals and lower social standards for refugees. For Söder, this includes the fact that rejected asylum seekers are only allowed to shop with chip cards instead of cash. Bavaria wants to introduce this, said the Prime Minister. Interior Minister Faeser has rejected the demands.
“Berlin is to blame for fewer deportations”
Söder asserts that the fact that deportations from Bavaria fell from 3,500 in 2019 to around 2,000 in 2022 is primarily the fault of the federal government. There are still no corresponding contracts with countries of origin to take back their nationals. The Greens also blocked the expansion of the number of so-called “safe countries of origin” to which deportations can take place.
Söder justifies the fact that he is making migration a campaign topic three weeks before the state elections by saying that it was “top issue number 1” in the BR24 BayernTrend. And if Bavarian district administrators – including those from the Greens – asked for help and said “close the borders”, then “a state government must also stand with the municipalities and the citizens”. Because, says Söder, “sitting out or keeping quiet about the problem” will ultimately lead to “the fact that we will probably have a destabilization of our democracy.”
Interior Minister Faeser rejected Söder’s initiative
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) rejected the Bavarian Prime Minister’s request. Permanent control of migration is only possible at the European level, said Faeser in the ARD program “Report from Berlin”. Söder and CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who supports Söder’s proposal, gave the false impression that “Germany could control this alone with upper limits.”
Faeser spoke out in favor of strengthening measures against smugglers. “Smuggling has increased incredibly and is putting many people at risk,” said the minister. “We are now changing the law so that we can also revoke the residence permit of smugglers here, for example.” Faeser also wants to set up a task force to combat smuggling crime more effectively. The Czech Republic will also take part in this, and participation is still being discussed with Poland and Austria.
The Greens and SPD accuse Söder of populism
For the top candidate of the Bavarian Greens, Katharina Schulze, Söder’s arguments are “taking the old PR tricks out of the mothballs again.” He is copying what didn’t work in 2018. Schulze emphasized that Markus Söder could have done everything for five years to better organize immigration in Bavaria. Such populist slogans would not help anyone. Instead of pointing the finger at Berlin, Bavaria should rather set up a 500 million euro emergency aid program for municipalities to accommodate refugees, offer language courses for everyone and ensure that refugees can work faster. Because often they are not allowed to work at all.
Bavaria’s SPD leader Florian von Brunn explains that Söder is “massively under pressure because of Aiwanger and the AfD.” Out of panic, he tries to outdo her. Instead of putting out the fire, he poured gasoline on the fire, says von Brunn. The SPD is working on solutions with a cool head. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has implemented a fair distribution of refugees in Europe. Asylum procedures would be accelerated and cities and municipalities would be helped with a lot of money. That’s “significantly more than the CSU interior ministers have done and achieved,” he thinks.
Like Söder, Bavaria’s FDP top candidate sees a need for action
The parliamentary director of the FDP in the Bundestag, Stephan Thomae, also rejected Söder’s initiative. “In view of the shortage of work and skilled workers, asylum seekers should be brought into the regular labor market,” said Thomae to the Germany editorial network. “A commitment to charitable work has the disadvantage that municipalities then compete with private service providers with cheap labor.” Rather, the goal must be to integrate immigrants into the labor market as quickly as possible so that they can earn their own living.
Bavaria’s FDP top candidate Martin Hagen, on the other hand, agrees with Söder on many points. He called for “urgent measures to reduce the number of refugees: This means effective protection of the EU’s external borders, faster asylum procedures and consistent returns of people with no prospect of staying.” Hagen also criticized the green traffic light coalition partner in Berlin and called for the North African Maghreb states to be declared safe countries of origin and for cash benefits for asylum seekers to be switched to benefits in kind. This would reduce “incentives to migrate to Germany – so-called pull factors”.
204,000 initial asylum applications from January to August
In Germany, more than 204,000 initial applications for asylum were made from January to August. That’s around 77 percent more than in the same period last year Federal Office for Migration and Refugees announces on its website. Most asylum applications came from Syrians, followed by Afghans and Turks.
According to a current analysis of data from the federal government by the Left parliamentary group, there were a total of almost 3.3 million registered asylum seekers and refugees with different residence statuses living in Germany at the end of June, including around a million people from Ukraine. The total number was therefore 111,000 higher than the last query from the Federal Ministry of the Interior at the end of last year. Also counted were so-called tolerated persons who are obliged to leave the country but cannot be deported for various reasons for the time being.