BERLIN, Germany - The German parliament on Wednesday passed a motion which seeks tightening of migration rules. Lawmakers reacted to the move.
The motion was put forward by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Southern Union (CSU) bloc. It came after a deadly attack by an Afghan asylum seeker whose application had been rejected.
The passage of the motion with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) broke a major taboo in the country.
Several lawmakers from various parties reacted to the move.
“People expect us to ensure security in Germany. People want to live safely. And indeed, it is clear to everyone that if an immigrant comes to our country and commits serious crimes - we have now seen the killing of our children - these people must leave the country again. We are voting for this proposal that we previously submitted as the CDU party. We do not want alliance and cooperation with AfD. The question is why the Social Democratic Party and the Green Party did not vote for this bill to protect Germany's security,” Paul Ziemiak, a Bundestag member (CDU), told Rudaw.
The AfD leader Alice Weidel said Wednesday was “a great day for democracy,” adding that “We clearly showed that we extend our hand for cooperation. As the AfD faction, we have always said that we vote for reasonable proposals. We reject party tactics. We support all good proposals, and today we showed that and managed to gather a majority vote for this bill. And this is how we must continue democratically, outside the undemocratic firewalls, because we owe it to our country. We must put our country and its people before all our interests and party-political tactics.”
The bill contains five points: preventing illegal immigration, deporting illegal immigrants, deporting foreign criminals, imprisoning immigrants who must leave Germany, and ending family reunification.
Saskia Esken is the co-chair of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ruling Social Democrats (SPD).
“What Friedrich Merz and his party are doing here to abolish asylum rights and return everyone at the borders will divide our society and destroy our political culture, especially if it is done with AfD votes, with a far-right extremist party that should be banned rather than helped to come to power,” she told Rudaw.
Janine Wissler, another Bundestag member, said “Today is a dark day. A historic day. For the first time in Federal Republic history, in the German Bundestag, a majority was formed between the Christian Democrats, Liberals, and fascists. This is a turning point. Friedrich Merz is responsible for this.“
Karsten Hilse, a Bundestag member (AfD), said “The right direction for us means that those who come here illegally, commit crimes, ultimately don't want to learn German, those who reject our society and way of life and want to establish a different social system here, we reject them. They must return to their countries.”
