After the Berlin elections, a newly formed group of Green Party politicians spoke up. The pugnacious mayor of Tübingen, Palmer, also supports the manifesto on migration policy.
Stuttgart/Berlin (dpa/lsw) – The Mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, has called for a change of course in refugee policy with a group of Green Party politicians. A shift to the right is also to be feared in Germany if citizens continue to lose their sense of security, according to a manifesto by the Vert Realos group. “Vert” means “green” in French.
The signatories include former Greens parliamentary group leader and Palmer lawyer Rezzo Schlauch and former MEP Rebecca Harms. The “Spiegel” reported first.
The demand for a reorientation comes shortly after the repeat elections in Berlin, in which the Greens came in third place, a hair’s breadth behind the SPD – but far behind the election winner, the CDU. A major topic of the vote was rioting on New Year’s Eve. The Greens were outraged by statements made by CDU politicians in the integration debate after the riots.
There is still “no concept for successful integration or the consistent return of refugees to their homeland as soon as this can be justified or they want it themselves,” says the memorandum of the Greens-Realos. “The migrants don’t know what is expected of them and set off on the long journey with false hopes.” The criticism was that hardly any distinction was made between war, asylum and economic migrants.
Approval for the Realos came from the FDP. Secretary-General Bijan Djir-Sarai suggested sitting down and talking about a new course in migration and integration policy, Djir-Sarai told the German Press Agency in Berlin. “We urgently need a migration and integration policy in Germany that is in line with reality, is in the interest of our country and does not ignore the concerns of the citizens,” Djir-Sarai demanded. And: “The catastrophic mistakes of the Merkel years must not be repeated.”
Palmer, who likes to polarize opinion, began his third term as mayor of the university town of Tübingen in January. His membership in the Greens will be suspended until the end of 2023 because of a dispute over taboo breaches and allegations of racism.
After Palmer’s recent election victory, several politicians from the Realo wing spoke out in favor of a rapprochement between him and the party. However, there was resistance from the left wing in Baden-Württemberg. At the beginning of the year, Palmer spoke out in favor of deporting a convicted rapist from Illerkirchberg (Alb-Donau-Kreis) to his Afghan homeland.
Asylum seekers must fit into the “historically grown social order of the Federal Republic of Germany,” was another demand from the manifesto of the Greens-Realos. The granting of asylum also presupposes that asylum seekers participate in the admission procedure and do not become criminal. “Otherwise, the right to asylum and thus the right of residence will lapse, which must also result in deportation (as soon as possible).”
After the Berlin elections, FDP leader Christian Lindner, whose party was kicked out of the House of Representatives, called for lessons to be drawn for the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP at federal level – one point: integration policy. Lindner said that people would not let politically correct arguments talk them out of the “observations of unsuccessful integration in everyday life”. There is a very clear expectation to prevent irregular migration to Germany. Against this background, the memorandum of the Greens-Realos comes – for the party leadership, the debate that is likely to follow threatens to become uncomfortable.
One of the signatories is Jens Marco Scherf, Greens district administrator in Miltenberg in Lower Franconia. His recent appearance on Markus Lanz’s ZDF talk show caused a stir. Scherf said that migration in his district was largely successful – but if it is to continue to succeed in the future, one must have the courage to “address grievances openly” without being defamed, without wanting to denigrate everyone.
At a meeting in Berlin on Thursday, the federal, state and local governments agreed on better coordination on the accommodation and care of refugees. However, the President of the German District Association, Reinhard Sager, was dissatisfied with the overall results.
