In a memorandum, Green Realos call for a different migration policy – including reception centers on the EU’s external border. The paper offers plenty of material for trouble with the Greens. But party leader Nouripour does not want to pay any attention to the group around Boris Palmer.
The radical rethinking of migration policy called for in a memorandum by politicians from the Greens continues to cause criticism within the party. “There is a toxic attitude in the migration debate,” Hanover Mayor Belit Onay told the Funke newspapers. “The paper deals with phantom debates.” As an example, Onay cited reception centers at the EU’s external borders. These are “not legally feasible, and the states concerned are not going along with it”.
He also does not experience deadweight effects on social benefits, said Onay. In his opinion, the statements made in the Green Paper did not meet with broad support in the party. Unlike the authors of the memorandum, he does not see the welcoming culture in Germany as exhausted. But more effort is needed nationwide and more support for the municipal level, said the mayor.
Green party leader Omid Nouripour did not want to evaluate the content of the memorandum on Monday. He repeatedly referred to the “very clear position” of the Greens, according to which migration and refugee policy “must be conducted with humanity and order”. It is not new that there are contributions to the debate. These contributions would not only be noted, but also processed.
Nouripour referred to the tense situation in many communities. It is “the order of the day” to see that they come to terms. The Greens chairman emphasized that this debate must now be the focus of attention.
The authors of the memorandum, dated February 11, led by co-signer Boris Palmer, criticize German migration policy as misguided. Many municipalities could “not withstand the high volume of migrants” and there is “no clear integration concept”, the paper entitled “Memorandum for a different migration policy in Germany” continues. The authors count themselves on the realpolitik wing of the Greens and see themselves as representatives of the “bourgeois green center”.
The authors also complain that “hardly any distinction is made between war, asylum and economic migrants” and call for this to be done in future. The paper also proposes so-called residence zones at the external borders of the European Union (EU) and faster deportations if asylum seekers do not participate in the admissions process. Undocumented people “must be turned back or remain in a state reception facility until their identity is clarified,” it said.
The former leader of the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Rezzo Schlauch, told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” that immigration had to be “controlled as far as possible”. The Greens “didn’t adequately address the dramatic situation in the municipalities,” said Schlauch, who was one of the first to sign the memorandum. With the initiative, he and his fellow campaigners wanted to “avoid the danger that the party would only deal with government and crisis management”.
Sharp criticism of the paper came from the left. Their party leader Janine Wissler told the “Mannheimer Morgen” on Monday: “I’m horrified.” Requiring refugees to present all documents before they are granted protection represents an insurmountable hurdle for many.
The more than 100 people who signed the memorandum include the Bavarian District Administrator Jens Marco Scherf, the former Green Party leader in the EU Parliament, Rebecca Harms, and Uschi Eid, then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s representative for Africa.
