Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

Germany’s state leaders pile on pressure on government ahead of refugee summit

Ahead of next Wednesday's refugee summit at the Federal Chancellor's Office in Berlin, Germany's state premiers are calling for more money from the government to help them manage the influx of refugees.

Published: 7 May 2023 12:50 CEST
Workers and refugees are pictured near a pool table at the Ukraine Arrival Centre Tegel for Ukrainian refugees in Berlin
Workers and refugees are pictured near a pool table at the Ukraine Arrival Centre Tegel for Ukrainian refugees in Berlin, on March 30, 2023. Germany's state premiers are calling for more money from the government to help them manage the influx of refugees ahead of a summit on Wednesday. Photo: Adrian DENNIS / AFP

“Cities, communities and districts need significantly more money – the government must therefore at least double its current pledge of €2.75 billion,” demanded Hessen’s state leader Boris Rhein (CDU), speaking to Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. 

“There’s no other way of financing accommodation and integration in the long term,” he added.

Rhein also called for the amount of funding to be proportionate to the number of refugees entering the country.

As the government is responsible for controlling and limiting immigration, “if the number of refugees increases, the government amount should also increase,” he said.

Germany took in more than 1.2 million refugees in 2022.

Wednesday’s meeting between the state ministers and the chancellor should send out a clear signal that “the federal government is finally pulling its head out of the sand, recognising the municipalities’ need and providing help as quickly as possible,” Rhein said.

READ ALSO: Why tensions are brewing in eastern Germany over refugee arrivals

Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister President, Reiner Haseloff (CDU) agreed that the government should also take more responsibility for immigration.

“The government must finally ensure that immigration is controlled. If we in Germany do not show ourselves to be capable of action, trust in our democracy will increasingly be undermined,” he told Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag.

And Bavaria’s head of state Markus Söder (CSU) threatened to cut aid to home states that did not take back rejected asylum seekers.

“We stand by the fundamental right to asylum. But for countries that do not agree to orderly repatriation, we must also consider cuts in development aid in the future,” Söder told the newspaper.

READ ALSO: IN NUMBERS: Over one million Ukrainians fled to Germany in 2022

Green and SPD ministers were also critical of the government’s current position.

“The government must live up to its responsibility and not leave the states and municipalities alone with the additional costs of the refugee crisis,” Baden-Württemberg’s premier Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) told the paper.

And Anke Rehlinger (SPD), head of Saarland, called for “unclaimed housing support funds to be used to create affordable housing that could also be used as temporary accommodation for refugees”.

Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) was confident ahead of the meeting, seeing good chances of finding a political solution on immigration within the EU soon.

“I want us as Europeans to finally act together – despite all the resistance,” she told Bild am Sonntag.

“We have already broken through the years of mutual blockade in the EU,” she added.

READ ALSO: How well have refugees integrated in Germany since 2015?

At stake here is the proposal for asylum centres at the EU’s external borders, from where asylum seekers can also be sent back or distributed fairly.

But when it comes to calls for the government to contribute more to federal states and municipalities’ refugee costs, Faeser has, to date, been skeptical.

The state premiers are due to meet with the Federal Chancellor at a special conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Wednesday.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

POLITICS

ANALYSIS: What’s at stake in Germany’s eastern state elections?

After success in Thuringia and Saxony, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) may well come in first in another eastern state election this Sunday. We spoke with a political scientist to analyse what's at stake as Brandenburg goes to the polls.

Published: 19 September 2024 09:11 CEST
ANALYSIS: What's at stake in Germany's eastern state elections?

German politics’ “eastern September” is set to finally end Sunday – with more ruminations and reflections likely to come about the recent fortunes of the far-right AfD at the ballot box.

If current polls are anything to go by, the AfD could come in first in the eastern state encircling Berlin – which counts Potsdam as its capital.

After overtaking the governing Social Democrats (SPD) in a recent shock poll, the party is currently at around 28 percent, compared to the SPD on 25 percent. The centre-right Christian Democrats come in at 16 percent in the latest poll and the left-populist Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – named after its founder – charts in at 14 percent.

The remaining parties come in much lower – with the Greens, Left and liberal Free Democrats all facing possible ejection from the state parliament.

Another victory for the AfD – or even a strong showing should the SPD still manage a narrow surprise win – will certainly boost the far-right’s confidence, after it came in first in Thuringia and second in Saxony earlier this month, following state elections that saw all three of Germany’s federally governing parties take massive losses.

Thuringia and Saxony results will likely hang over Brandenburg on Sunday – with Germany’s governing parties, many everyday Germans, and foreigners all watching with some trepidation. Here’s what to watch out for following the Brandenburg result.

READ ALSO: ‘Political earthquake’ – What the far-right AfD state election win means for Germany 

A newly confident AfD insists it must be part of government

The AfD has repeatedly argued that it must be considered as a possible coalition partner to join German governments – whether at the federal, state, or local level. 

“There are no politics without the AfD,” its co-leader Tino Chrupalla said following the Thuringia results. However, all other parties have explicitly refused to work with the AfD to form a governing coalition – meaning that as high as its results this month have been, they fall well short of the absolute majority that would be required to govern alone.

READ ALSO: ‘We need change’: Germany’s far-right eyes power after state election win

However, its getting more difficult to form coalitions to keep the AfD out, with the centre-right CDU in Thuringia even open to governing with the leftwing populist BSW after mainstream parties like the Greens and FDP were thrown out of state parliament entirely.

University of Mainz political scientist Kai Arzheimer, who specialises in the German far-right, says whether the far-right ever get into a German government or not depends mostly on whether – and how – the CDU is willing to work with the AfD.

Thuringia election results on a screen

People watch the first exit polls results for Thuringia’s state elections come in at the State Parliament in Erfurt on September 1st, 2024. Photo by Joerg CARSTENSEN / AFP

“For the time being, it should be able to form coalitions against the AfD, even if they are rather awkward,” says Arzheimer, who adds that even the different regional chapters of the CDU may have different opinions about working with the AfD.

“Within the eastern state parties of both the CDU and the FDP, there seems to be some appetite for coming to an arrangement with the AfD. While a formal coalition would probably split either party, we have already seen some tentative moves towards an informal cooperation.”

Ultimately, the Brandmauer or “firewall” concept in German politics – in which all other parties refuse to work with the AfD – may end up coming under increasing stress on the back of eastern state election results, where governing with the far-right no longer becomes unthinkable.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Could the far-right AfD ever take power in Germany?

What the mainstream parties take from eastern election results

It’s probably no coincidence that Germany’s ruling government decided to re-institute border controls at its land borders with other EU states shortly after the AfD topped the Thuringia state poll, according to Arzheimer, who says the elections are just the latest in a number of things at work when if comes to Germany’s migration debate.

“The border controls, the plans for the stricter enforcement of repatriation orders, and most of all the government’s harsher rhetoric are as much a reaction to Saxony and Thuringia as they are an attempt to control the fallout from the Solingen knife attack and a response to the whole ‘debate’ on immigration,” he says.

“Many experts seem to agree that they are neither practical nor that useful, and introducing them more or less overnight smacks of a degree of panic.”

READ ALSO: Should foreign residents in Germany be concerned about far-right AfD win?

Polls conducted following the election found that migration and internal security issues were big drivers of the AfD vote – despite these being issues for the national, rather than regional, government. 

Of the AfD voters in Thuringia, more than 70 percent said either migration or crime and internal security played the largest role in influencing their vote. Slightly less than ten percent said social security. Despite the AfD’s pro-Russian views, only three percent of AfD voters in Thuringia said Germany’s support of Ukraine decisively influenced their votes.

Besides the mainstream parties like the SPD reacting with spur-of-the-moment migration policies, the Brandenburg result may end up putting pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz from within his own SPD.

Brandenburg SPD’s Dietmar Woidke may still be able to hold onto the premiership, but he has said he will resign if he doesn’t beat the AfD outright. Should he lose, calls may grow louder within the SPD for Scholz to resign himself – or at least declare that he won’t stand as a chancellor candidate again.

READ ALSO: How an explosive row over immigration has divided Germany

SHOW COMMENTS