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SPD leader Lars Klingbeil: “The state must function”
Photo: Michele Tantussi / Getty Images
Last fall, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) urged SPIEGEL to finally deport people on a large scale. Basically this meant newcomers, but only those whose right to asylum had been proven rejected. Now SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil is urging the federal states to implement Scholz's desired deportation offensive.
“The federal states now have the options – and they have to use them,” said Klingbeil to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. "The state has to function when it comes to repatriating people who cannot stay with us."
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai also called on the federal states to carry out deportations of foreigners who are obliged to leave the country more consistently. "The federal government will not be able to solve the problem on its own. Now that the legal conditions for more effective returns have been created, the states must now use them specifically and carry out more deportations," said Djir-Sarai to the "Rheinische Post".
An extension of exit custody should prevent deportations from failing at the last moment in the future. After a long tug of war in the coalition, the Bundestag passed a corresponding law two weeks ago with a majority of the traffic light - even if some Green MPs voted against it. The law provides for procedural simplifications and tightened rules to make it easier to deport foreign nationals who are required to leave the country.
“We need skilled workers from abroad so that we remain a strong country”
However, Klingbeil does not want to see the repatriations as a license for mass deportations. When it comes to migration, Germany must “get better in all directions,” emphasized the SPD politician. Also when it comes to accepting people, integrating them and putting them into work. »We need skilled workers from abroad so that we remain a strong country. This also includes a welcoming culture.«
With a view to the low employment rate of Ukrainian refugees compared to the EU, Klingbeil put pressure on: "Anyone who is here should learn German and work as quickly as possible," said the SPD co-chairman. Regarding the now controversial citizen's benefit for refugees from Ukraine, which is higher than benefits for asylum seekers, Klingbeil said: "It was absolutely right to help people from Ukraine who fled the war quickly and easily. We have also greatly relieved the burden on immigration authorities and municipalities.”
There was a new dispute over the deportation issue after the recent revelations surrounding the Potsdam deportation summit with AfD participation. Parts of the right-wing extremist party are pushing for “remigration”, i.e. the mass deportation of millions of newcomers. This should also include German citizens who, in the opinion of the right-wing extremists, have “not assimilated” here. In right-wing extremist circles, the idea was incorrectly equated with Scholz's plans. Recently, millions of people in Germany took to the streets against the AfD's deportation plans.
mrc/dpa