In Germany the moderates "disown" Merkel: after the attacks, a harsh crackdown on migrants

In Germany the moderates “disown” Merkel: after the attacks, a harsh crackdown on migrants

The German right is veering ever further to the right, with the CDU popular groups increasingly harshening their rhetoric against migrants to try to satisfy a worried public opinion and slow down the advance of the radicals of Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The president of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, expected to become the new chancellor after the elections of February 23, has heavily criticized the old leader Angela Merkel, claiming that the country is “faced with the rubble of an asylum policy and imperfect immigration, which has been in force in Germany for 10 years.”

It was especially the violent attacks linked to suspected foreigners in the nation, including the fatal stabbing of a man and a girl by an Afghan migrant last Wednesday, that prompted political parties to call for tougher measures.

Knife attack against children in a nursery: one victim is two years old, a man also dies

Merz’s hard line

With a view to breaking with the common rules of the EU, Merz declared that he will suspend Schengen and order permanent border controls from his first day in power and that he will increase the detention of “illegal immigrants”. The CDU electoral program also proposes to suspend family reunification for those who enjoy subsidiary protection, to outsource asylum processes to third countries, as Italy would like to do with Albania, as well as to resume deportations to Syria and Afghanistan .

Merz said that “all illegal immigrants” should be rejected at the border, including asylum seekers seeking protection from war or political persecution, and that he was prepared to issue a “de facto ban” on entry for all those who did not have valid entry documents. The leader also called for an increase in the number of migrant detention centres, arguing that empty warehouses, converted shipping containers or disused barracks could be used.

The popular man also added that people stopped by the police for criminal acts, who were asked to leave but who refused to do so, “must be taken into custody and deported as quickly as possible.” He then sharply criticized EU laws on asylum and migration, calling them “dysfunctional”.

The attacks

The Aschaffenburg attack was the latest in a series of violent attacks in Germany, fueling calls for tougher security measures and strengthening the position of the far-right AfD, currently second in polls. The suspect in the attack, arrested shortly after, is a 28-year-old Afghan with a history of psychiatric problems and violence. According to Bavarian authorities, the man’s asylum process was closed at his request after two years.

The 28-year-old said last month that he would leave Germany of his own volition, but had not done so and continued to receive psychiatric treatment. At the end of December, another attack shook Germany: a Christmas market in Magdeburg (central Germany) was targeted by a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who drove his car into the crowd, killing six people and wounding around 300.