German Parliament Calls for Stricter Immigration Rules
(Bloomberg) -- Germany’s parliament has approved a resolution in a contentious vote, which calls on the minority government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz to enact a strict migration policy reform.
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Even though the resolution is non-binding for the government it can be seen as historic. It’s the first time that the far-right Alternative for Germany helped one of the democratic mainstream parties secure a majority in parliament.
Before the vote, Scholz launched a blistering personal attack on the conservative frontrunner for next month’s snap election, accusing Friedrich Merz of resorting to populism and flirting with extremist forces with his hard-line stance on immigration.
In an unusually aggressive speech, Scholz said the tougher immigration legislation Merz wants to push through parliament this week breaches European law. He added that Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc was damaging Germany’s reputation in the world and was calling into question the foundations of the European Union.
“There are limits one must not cross as a statesman,” Scholz said. His Social Democrats are currently trailing in third place in polls, significantly behind the CDU/CSU and the AfD.
“You say you would go all in with your proposals, as you say in a game of poker,” he added. “But politics in our country is not a game of poker. Cohesion is not a stake. And a German chancellor cannot be a gambler, because in the worst case scenario he will decide between war and peace.”
The campaign for Germany’s snap election on Feb. 23 has turned distinctly more aggressive in recent days after Merz and his CDU/CSU alliance sharpened their rhetoric on the need to fight irregular migration.
Merz said the tougher stance was a response to a fatal knife attack this month in the city of Aschaffenburg - perpetrated by a 28-year-old Afghan man whose asylum request had been rejected. It was the latest of a series of deadly attacks involving immigrants, which exposed flaws in Germany’s domestic security and asylum processes.
The conservatives are also planning to present a bill in the Bundestag to tackle irregular migration on Friday. It would become law if it gets majority support in both houses — widely seen as unlikely. Merz had said he’s prepared to push ahead even if AfD lawmakers give their backing.
Merz reiterated in parliament earlier Wednesday that he would rather accept the AfD’s support than face “the choice of watching powerless as people in our country are threatened, injured or murdered.” He stressed, however, that he won’t consider an active cooperation with the AfD because of their far-right and extremist policies.
“Democracy is under threat when radicals win power,” Merz said, directly addressing the AfD caucus in parliament. “That’s why we, and I, will do everything to prevent that from happening.”
In the latest YouGov poll published Wednesday, support for the CDU/CSU was up by one percentage point compared with the previous week to 29%.
The AfD gained four points to 23% in second and Scholz’s SPD party was at 15%, down four points. The Greens lost two points at 13%.
Separately, the Social Democrats plan to make a renewed effort to get approval for a package of stricter security measures they presented already in December, including enhanced powers for police to help reduce migration flows.
Scholz’s government reintroduced entry checks at all German borders last year. As a consequence, the number of new arrivals and asylum requests went down by roughly a third last year from a high level the previous year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
--With assistance from Kamil Kowalcze.
(Updates with result of vote in first and eighth paragraph)
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