From the BZ editorial team
After former Federal President Joachim Gauck (83), the next wise, big man in German federal politics is speaking out – and also speaks plain language about refugees!
Former Bundestag President and record MP Wolfgang Schäuble (81, CDU/ always in the Bundestag since 1972) is in favor of a reduction in social benefits for asylum seekers.
▶︎ “We have to realize that we can no longer afford this asylum policy,” says Schäuble in an interview with “Zeit Online”.
▶︎ He sees scope to reduce social benefits, says Schäuble – even if the Federal Constitutional Court could block it.
▶︎ Schäuble: “If we offer a higher level of social benefits, we need not be surprised that people try to come to Germany if possible. So we need a uniform, European level.”
Schäuble grateful for Gauck’s plain text
Schäuble warned politicians not to hold relevant discussions with reference to the Federal Constitutional Court: “The argument that the Constitutional Court is not taking part is an attempt at an explanation by politicians who do not want to decide on these questions.”
Schäuble emphasized that he supported statements by Joachim Gauck, who had called on politicians to open up new leeway in migration policy, even if they “sound inhumane”. He was “grateful for the statements of the former Federal President, who pointed out early on that our hearts are wide, but our possibilities are finite.”
Schäuble review of the 2015 refugee crisis
Schäuble was finance minister in the Merkel cabinet during the 2015 refugee crisis. In November of that year, he offended the We-Can-Do Chancellor when he compared refugees to an “avalanche” and added: “Avalanches can be triggered when a somewhat careless skier goes onto the slope.”
Six months later, he also warned against European isolation. “The isolation is what would destroy us, what would cause us to degenerate into inbreeding.”