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Migrants in Berlin

Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz handed Chancellor Olaf Scholz a paper from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on Friday evening with 26 measures to limit illegal migration, divided into national and European measures. The proposals have been submitted to SPIEGEL.

The paper no longer speaks of an upper limit, but nevertheless calls for "a common understanding that Germany can tolerate asylum immigration of up to a maximum of 200,000 people per year in terms of integration infrastructure and social cohesion." In addition, it calls for the expansion of "situationally adapted" stationary border controls, for example at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. However, the German government already has an agreement with Switzerland that allows joint inspections of German and Swiss officials on Swiss soil.

The CDU/CSU is also calling for measures that would certainly not be possible with the traffic light coalition – especially with the Greens – at the moment. For example, the suspension of family reunification with beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, as was already the case at times in 2018. Or the stop of voluntary federal admission programs, for example for Afghanistan. The traffic light has also so far rejected the classification of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin. Especially in Algeria, the human rights situation is too problematic, the leader of the Green Party, Omid Nouripour, recently said.

According to the paper, the Union expects more commitment from the Chancellor at the European level. He should advocate for a "revitalization of the EU-Turkey agreement and the conclusion of a corresponding EU-Tunisia agreement," although it can be assumed that the Chancellery is already working intensively on this. However, Olaf Scholz should also take a "personal initiative" to the EU Commission to ensure that "EU funds are released for the protection of the EU's external borders and for the construction of border protection infrastructure," the paper demands. According to participants in the evening, the Chancellor had "taken note" of the opposition's proposals.

In addition to opposition leader Merz (CDU), Minister-Presidents Boris Rhein (CDU) and Stephan Weil (SPD) took part in a more than two-hour conversation about the migration problem in the Chancellery. The talks were "very constructive" and "took place in a very good atmosphere," said Hesse's head of government Rhein, who is currently chairman of the Conference of Minister-Presidents. His deputy, Weil from Lower Saxony, said that after the agreement of the states at the Minister-Presidents' Conference in Frankfurt, the government and opposition must now also come together in the federal government. He is confident about this. "It's clear that they're willing to do so."

Decisions are now to be made at the Minister-Presidents' Conference on 6 November, which will also be attended by the Chancellor. Until then, the traffic light and the Union would have to come to an agreement, Rhein and Weil said. Then there should also be resolutions on the controversial financing of refugee admission, which has been excluded in the Chancellery for the time being.

kno/kev/dpa