The atmosphere was relaxed after the migration summit on Friday evening at the Berlin Chancellery. At a high-level meeting between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and state representative and opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU), there appeared to be a rapprochement. “The Chancellor is very satisfied with the MPK’s decision,” Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) said afterwards. “We have given the blueprint,” said Hessian Prime Minister and Chairman of the Conference of Prime Ministers, Boris Rhein (CDU), regarding the country’s resolution and the summit. “The federal government, states and the largest opposition parties assess many things the same way,” Scholz wrote Saturday on the X platform, which was previously Twitter. It was a “friendly and constructive exchange.”

But the next morning it became clear that there were still problems on many fronts, especially in relations with the Union at the federal level. At the meeting, Merz also presented the Chancellor with a catalog containing a total of 26 demands from the CDU and CSU parliamentary groups, which were barely acceptable to Olaf Scholz and his traffic light government. The three page paper is in South German Newspaper before.

The Chancellor may see the first point as an insult

The letter, entitled “German Pact: Measures to Limit Illegal Migration,” goes far beyond the demands of these countries. The Chancellor may see the first point as an insult. Scholz should signal in government statements that the country’s absorptive capacity has been exhausted. The European Union also called for a common understanding that “with the objective of infrastructure integration and social cohesion, asylum immigration can be tolerated up to a maximum of 200,000 people per year.” In other words: The traffic light government should also openly represent some kind of upper limit.

The European Union also demands that visas only be granted to citizens of a country if that country is ready to take back rejected asylum seekers. People who have applied for asylum and are registered in other EU countries should be more consistently rejected at internal EU borders. The Unity faction demands that they only receive social benefits in the states where they are registered.

The CDU and CDU once again called for “the introduction of stationary border controls to Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland according to the situation” as well as the creation of special return centers and transit zones where expedited procedures should be carried out. out at the country’s borders for asylum seekers who have little prospect of staying. For rejected and non-deportable asylum seekers and persons under asylum procedures, a level of social benefits below the level of citizens’ benefits should be applied. The European Union also once again called for Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and India to be classified as safe countries of origin.

Although the federal and state governments seem to be getting closer in the meeting, it does not rule out the possibility that the traffic light government will want to fulfill the list of demands. The three coalition partners firmly reject the implementation of the upper limit. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), as well as leading domestic politicians from the FDP and Green Party, have always strongly rejected the Union’s plans. The Green Party rejects the expansion of safe home states, citing the difficult human rights situation in Tunisia.

What’s more important is that Scholz and the states reach an agreement

However, what is more important than the agreement between the traffic lights and the European Union for the solution of the migration debate is that Scholz and the states agree on the same line. In many ways, they are responsible for the practical implementation of migration policy. Due to the politically sensitive nature of the migration debate, Scholz proposed a “German Pact” in which the federal government, states, local authorities and the opposition should cooperate whenever possible. According to government officials, the catalog submitted by the Union was not discussed in depth at the meeting.

A decision must now be prepared at a federal-state meeting on November 6. Until then, open questions will be discussed, Chancellor Scholz said. This primarily includes the question of whether the federal government will transfer more money to states and cities to accommodate and care for refugees.