The Japan Times - Germany: Migration reform package

The German CDU/CSU party has received a majority in the Bundestag for its demands for a drastic tightening of asylum policy. Parliament approved a five-point motion that, among other things, calls for permanent border controls, the rejection of those seeking protection and the detention of foreigners who have been ordered to leave the country.

The German FDP and AfD parties (Alternative for Germany) had signalled their support for the motion, meaning that the SPD and the Greens, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Robert Habeck (Greens), failed miserably to prevent a change in asylum policy in Germany. The shameful fear of the SPD and the Greens of a complete loss of power in the outgoing Bundestag was almost tangible.

AfD Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel addressed the issue of migration in her speech and said that the current SPD and Green policies were deadly and affected the whole country. She accused the red-green coalition of organising demonstrations ‘at the expense of the victims’. Weidel also criticises the incomprehensible grin photo of the Greens at the demonstration in Berlin, on the occasion of a memorial service for the victims of the murders of Aschafenburg.

Before the vote, the ‘still’ Chancellor Olaf Scholz (66, SPD), who after almost four years has completely failed with his policies in the Federal Republic of Germany, made a government statement in which he could do nothing more than praise his government's work, as always. This was followed by a battle of words between the head of government and the opposition! In his speech, Merz emphasised that the SPD and the Greens are also ‘becoming smaller and smaller’. Friedrich Merz said: ‘Now they have to accept that the right decision will be made without them, but on the merits of the case. A right decision is not wrong if the wrong people agree to it’.