By Gunnar Schupelius
Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) remains steadfastly silent about the asylum crisis in Berlin. His colleague in New York, on the other hand, speaks plainly. Wegner should follow this example, says Gunnar Schupelius.
New York Mayor Eric Adams (Democrat) caused a stir last week. In a town hall meeting, he declared that America had lost control of illegal immigration.
Adams literally said: “This problem will destroy New York City. I’ve never had a problem in my life for which I didn’t see a solution or an end. Now I don’t see an end. (…) We will lose the city we knew.”
He spoke very excitedly about the financial and social impact on the city, which was no longer sustainable. The situation is becoming increasingly difficult, he said: “First migrants came from Venezuela, but now people are coming from Ecuador, Mexico, Russia and parts of West Africa. They come across the Mexican border from all over the world.”
These clear words were particularly notable because Adams has never appeared in this way before. On the contrary: Adams had always declared New York to be a “safe haven” for refugees. There is no longer any talk of that, now it’s just about being overwhelmed.
Eric Adams (Democrat): Mayor of New York Photo: AFP
In Berlin it looks very similar, except that the governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) does not call the child by name. They also come to Berlin “from all over the world”, especially across the Polish and Czech borders. The city, similar to New York, is completely overloaded.
But Wegner doesn’t talk about it like Adams did, he stays silent. He already did this in the election campaign at the beginning of the year, when the influx of asylum seekers played practically no role for the CDU. The topic is also not found in an important place in the coalition agreement with the SPD.
When the SPD state executive finally decided at the beginning of September to allow even more uncontrolled immigration, Wegner could have convened the coalition committee for clarification.
He could have summoned the SPD Senators for Interior and Social Affairs, Spranger and Kiziltepe, to clarify how things should proceed. He didn’t do it, he remained silent about a problem that people in Berlin and Germany described in all surveys as the biggest and most pressing.
Since Wegner is silent, we don’t know why he is silent. The following picture emerges from the observation: He fears a confrontation with his coalition partner SPD, which is becoming unpredictable on the asylum issue. And he fears being called a monster and a racist if he leans out the window.
That’s what happened to Adams in New York, he was called a racist. But that doesn’t seem to matter to him now.
The problems are too big for him to keep quiet about them. Kai Wegner, on the other hand, apparently did not understand the dimensions of the asylum crisis.
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