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Norbert Röttgen loves surprises.

Nobody had expected the candidacy of the former environment minister for the post of CDU chairman in February.

Not even that it will be so successful: Starting as an outsider, Röttgen has overtaken NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet in surveys.

But he has more surprises in store.

Because although Röttgen is considered an extremely liberal Christian Democrat who strives for black and green, he now takes a position on a domestic political issue that is considered conservative.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag calls for deportations to Syria to be made possible.

"It is about a clear political signal internally and externally that Germany is not a place of protection for terrorist threats," said Röttgen WELT.

"With the general ban on deportation to Syria, Syrians who threatened Syria are currently guaranteed that we will not send them back."

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So far, rejected asylum seekers have under no circumstances been sent back to Syria because a civil war is raging there.

However, this deportation freeze expires at the end of the year and would have to be extended by the Conference of Interior Ministers, which is meeting this Thursday.

Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has spoken out against an extension and instead wants to examine each individual case in the future.

"Checking whether you can deport to Syria in the pacified areas"

After the fatal knife attack in Dresden, Interior Minister Seehofer urges that the possibility of deportations to Syria be examined.

"I will strongly advocate that we check whether one can not deport to Syria in the pacified areas."

Source: WORLD

Röttgen now jumps for him: “If those who threaten us abuse our protection by attacking us as a state and society, then they have forfeited our country's protection.

The state must then get all available means in hand to send back such threats - including to Syria.

The general ban on deportation to Syria must therefore be lifted as soon as possible for terrorist threats. "

New majorities at the party congress?

The candidate voted on his proposal with one of the leading CDU domestic politicians from the Bundestag parliamentary group, Alexander Throm.

He told WELT: "If someone himself declares that he is an enemy of Germany and that he intends to kill or harm people here, then he does not deserve any protection - neither the protection of the right of asylum nor the protection of the deportation stop.

Alexander Throm (CDU)

Source: pa / dpa / Fabian Sommer

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So far, returns to Syria have also failed because the Federal Foreign Office has classified the situation in the civil war country as unsafe.

Röttgen and Throm now want to deviate from this criterion.

"An exception must be made for those at risk when the deportation is stopped, regardless of the assessment of the security situation in Syria by the Foreign Office," said Throm.

"Because only then is it possible in principle to take these dangerous terrorists into custody as preventive detention."

The joint appearance of the two Christian Democrats is also an indication of possibly changing majorities at the CDU party congress.

The will elect the new chairman in digital form in January.

Throm is a directly elected MP from Heidelberg and belongs to the Baden-Württemberg CDU, which so far has mainly spoken out in favor of Friedrich Merz.

Two years ago, when Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer won against Merz, domestic politicians from the southwest surprisingly sided with Kramp-Karrenbauer in the decisive second round of the vote.

Röttgen's surprising advance also puts his second competitor in distress.

Because Laschet's North Rhine-Westphalian state government is divided on the question of the deportation of Syrian threats.

Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) supports this - Integration Minister Joachim Stamp (FDP) is against it.

The black-and-yellow coalition agreement of the Laschet coalition stipulates that the integration minister always has the final say in disputes about migration.

"There must be a way to push them back"

The state interior ministers decided at their conference in Lübeck that serious criminals should be expelled to Syria in the future.

In the WELT interview, NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul explains the details.

Source: WORLD / Felicia Pochhammer