The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz has apologized for accusing Ukrainian refugees of "social tourism".

He told Bild TV on Monday evening: "We are now experiencing social tourism from these refugees: to Germany, back to Ukraine, to Germany, back to Ukraine." The background, according to Merz: Initially, Ukraine refugees were entitled to care under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act - since June they have received basic security, i.e. the same benefits as, for example, Hartz IV recipients, and are therefore better off.

On Tuesday morning, Merz wrote on Twitter that he regretted his choice of words.

“Social tourism” was an “inaccurate description of a problem that can be observed in individual cases”.

His reference was exclusively to the lack of registration of the refugees.

"Far from me was and is not to criticize the refugees from Ukraine who are confronted with a hard fate." 

The complaint by the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz had caused outrage among the Greens and the SPD.

"How does it actually fit in with the much-vaunted solidarity of the Union with Ukraine that Friedrich Merz speaks of "social tourism" in the context of people fleeing this terrible war of aggression?" Asked Chairwoman Ricarda Lang on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

Group leader Britta Haßelmann wrote there: “Wanting to distinguish yourself by devaluing other people is an instrument that right-wing populists regularly use.

Friedrich Merz knows that too.

Any means of self-promotion seems right to him.”

In his own words, Merz had expected even greater problems with refugees from Russia "if the Federal Government did what the Federal Minister of the Interior suggested, namely to give practically all conscientious objectors to military service mobilization in Russia access to the Federal Republic of Germany".

The Union is “strictly opposed”.

Merz did not comment on this on Tuesday morning.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) had told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung" that deserters threatened with severe repression usually received international protection in Germany.

On Tuesday, she accused Merz of “sentiment mongering” against refugees from Ukraine.

"Social tourism" was the "word of the year" in 2013. It was "unworthy of every democrat even in 2022".