From BZ/dpa
CDU leader Friedrich Merz is convinced that the AfD would lose approval again if the government adopted a different refugee policy.
“All election researchers tell us that the AfD almost only has this one topic,” said Merz of the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Wednesday).
“Another refugee policy would lead to the AfD’s poll numbers falling again.” But if the federal government does the opposite, “then the opposition cannot halve them.”
In the interview, Merz was asked about a statement from 2018: As an applicant for the CDU presidency, he said at the time that he believed he could halve the AfD values. He now emphasized that the context was different at the time.
“When I said that, we were still in government and it was up to us to make decisions that would have kept the AfD small. This applies above all to refugee policy.”
In the southern Thuringian district of Sonneberg, an AfD candidate was elected district administrator for the first time in Germany on Sunday. This had further fueled the debate about the AfD’s current high in nationwide polls, in which it ranked around 20 percent.
“Controlling” but not “limiting” immigration
Merz renewed the Union’s criticism of a reform of the Residence Act decided by the traffic light groups. In the future, there will only be talk of “control” and no longer of “limitation” of immigration.
“The necessary controlled immigration into the labor market will continue to be overtaken by uncontrolled immigration into our social systems,” warned the CDU chairman and Union faction leader. You have to control immigration and limit it, “there’s no other way.”
The traffic light had argued that the change reflects that “immigration law that is geared towards both Germany’s overall economic interests and humanity is an important concern and goal of the governing coalition”.
Merz sees the compromise of the EU interior ministers on a reform of the European asylum rules as positive – but he warned that one is far from “that it will become applicable law”. “That will not be the case until 2024 at the earliest, possibly even as late as 2025, and by then the Greens in Germany and Europe in particular will make a massive stand against this compromise.”