German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at the weekend, called for willingness for compromise from all involved in next week’s cross-party talks on migration amid an increasingly heated atmosphere in the country.
Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial, said in Berlin that he was following the consultations between Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left government and the conservative opposition in the expectation of a common understanding between them.
A report by the German News Service (delivered by dpa) quoted him as saying: “I’m convinced that it is up to the parties of the democratic centre to work out solutions to questions that are causing concern to many people,” adding that a general effort across party lines was needed.
The cross-party initiative followed a mass stabbing by a 26-year-old Syrian man at a festival on a central square in the western German city of Solingen on August 23 in which three people died and eight others were injured.
Steinmeier had earlier pledged that Germany would strive to find a solution to the problem of irregular migration, adding: “We have to undertake every, really every effort to implement the rules on limiting access already in place and those that we are now creating in addition.”
Two state elections held in the immediate aftermath of the Solingen attack saw strong performances from anti-migration parties on both the right and the left.
As the coalition agrees on details of the security package, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition has agreed on the details of a package of measures aimed at strengthening security in the wake of the attack, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said.
A draft bill has been submitted to the coalition’s parliamentary groups for consideration, he said, adding that it could be discussed in the full legislature during the week.
The broad outline of the proposal was unveiled late last month and included stricter rules on carrying knives in public, faster deportations, tight new limits on benefits for asylum seekers, and greater police powers to address suspected Islamist threats.
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“It is now in the hands of parliament to get all of this moving quickly,” Buschmann said.
But the measures may not go far enough for the conservative CDU/CSU opposition bloc, which has demanded tough limits on the number of asylum seekers entering country.
Leader of the conservative CDU/CSU opposition bloc, Friedrich Merz, has called for migrants entering the country unlawfully to be immediately turned away at the border.
Meanwhile, Scholz said amid an increasingly heated atmosphere in the country over the issue that Germany’s coalition government will play its part in ensuring the success of inter-party talks on curbing migration.
Speaking at a meeting in his Teltow constituency in the eastern state of Brandenburg near Berlin, he said: “It won’t be our fault if they don’t work out. I hope that they do work out, because it would be good for society and peace.”
The three coalition parties and the conservative opposition are to meet along with the leaders of the country’s 16 federal states on Tuesday to hammer out a joint position.
Ahead of the talks, Merz also said he was prepared to continue the talks only if undocumented migrants are immediately turned back at Germany’s borders.
Buschmann said: “It is now in the hands of parliament to get all of this moving quickly,” but there are fears that the measures may not go far enough for the opposition bloc, which has demanded tough limits on the number of asylum seekers entering the country.
