Dresden: City council approves AfD application payment card for asylum seekers

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Vote in the Dresden city council: CDU leadership sees a need for clarification

Photo: Jürgen Männel / jmfoto / IMAGO

Taking part in political discussions, but not cooperating on the content: The CDU's credo when dealing with the AfD is actually clear. In Dresden, this defined firewall has now crumbled. With votes from the CDU parliamentary group, the city council approved an AfD proposal to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers. This emerges from a recording of the city council meeting on Thursday evening.

The decision was narrow with 33 votes to 32. The FDP and Free Voters factions also supported the motion. Before the vote, Thomas Lehmann from the CDU parliamentary group said that his group supported the motion because he feared that the introduction of a planned nationwide payment card could take a long time.

“The fire wall collapses with a crash”

Last year, CDU leader Friedrich Merz made it clear after a debate about the "firewall" against the AfD in local politics: "There will be no cooperation between the CDU and the AfD at the local level either." Merz told the "Welt" that he would join in Wanting to take a closer look at the matter with the district chairman and the state chairman of the CDU. Then an assessment should be made.

The AfD, however, is already celebrating its municipal success. “The firewall is collapsing,” tweeted Silke Schöps, city councilor for the AfD city council group in Dresden, in an article on X.

The AfD parliamentary group's proposal stipulates that, in a model experiment, a payment card will replace the current cash payments for asylum seekers. The card should then only be able to make payments within Germany, and there should also be further restrictions on use. The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the state association of the AfD as “certainly right-wing extremist”.

The federal government has made a cabinet decision on a payment card for refugees. However, it is unclear when the nationwide regulation will be decided in the Bundestag. In some federal states, individual municipalities have already moved ahead and introduced their own payment cards.

Among other things, the card is intended to prevent migrants from transferring money to smugglers or family and friends abroad. However, the model is considered controversial - it significantly restricts asylum seekers here.

mrc/dpa