By Michael Sauerbier
Clear words from Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (66, CDU). “People feel that we have lost control over illegal migration,” says the politician. The district of Uckermark is just getting the receipt.
Refugee summit in the Prenzlau district office. Minister Stübgen and Secretary of State for Social Affairs Michael Ranft (non-party) came to district boss Karina Dörk (59, CDU) and their twelve mayors on Thursday. Their need for discussion was great – because the air is burning in the Uckermark district town.
The people of Prenzlau have been arguing about new refugee accommodation for months. The district wants to accommodate 300 migrants in an empty office building on the outskirts – between the junkyard and the gas station.
“Completely unsuitable,” says Mayor Hendrik Sommer (52, independent). “There is no shop, no day care center, no doctor. Even Germans would get homesick.”
The district of Uckermark wants to accommodate 300 refugees in this empty office building on the outskirts of Prenzlau Photo: Michael Sauerbier
Many Uckermarkers see it the same way. In a very short time, the far-right AfD collected 13,300 signatures for a citizens’ initiative against the home – 30 percent more than necessary.
“The great approval shows how heated up the situation among the population is,” said Minister Stübgen to the BZ “because people feel that we have lost control over illegal migration. And they also feel that the federal government is not doing anything.”
The minister has been pushing for controls at the border with Poland for months. Stübgen: “So that we can reject illegal migrants immediately. They are deliberately smuggled in via Russia and Belarus in order to destabilize Germany.” But Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) rejects controls.
Uckermark District Administrator Karina Dörk (center, CDU), met Brandenburg’s Minister of the Interior Michael Stübgen (left, CDU) and State Secretary for Social Affairs Michael Ranft (independent) at a refugee summit in Prenzlau Photo: dpa
“Putin rejoices at how incompetent the federal government is behaving here and pushes harder,” says Stübgen. “Because his interest is: The more unstable Germany, the better.”
In Brandenburg, the minister has done what he can: Since the beginning of July, refugees without a chance of being recognized have had to stay in initial reception containers for 18 months instead of three, and are no longer distributed among districts and cities.
The Uckermark town hall bosses also recognize the new, hard line. District Administrator Dörk: “We have to limit illegal migration. And we need more money for language courses, supervisors and vocational training for the refugees.”
That the empty office building on the outskirts of Prenzlau is “not a happy location“ is, she admits. At the end of September, the district council will decide whether all citizens should vote on it. Dörk: “I am a democrat.“