Agency Report –
An initial outline of a possible coalition deal between Germany’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) has left a dispute over migration policy unresolved.
The CDU’s Friedrich Merz, who pledged a hard-line migration crackdown during the election campaign, has demanded that Germany impose widespread border controls and refuse entry to asylum seekers.
But the SPD, the party of outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has argued such moves would be a clear violation of German and EU law, and can’t be taken without close coordination with Germany’s EU neighbours.
A draft paper outlining a potential compromise deal between the parties said Germany could turn back asylum seekers at the border “in coordination with our European neighbours.”
On Monday, however, comments from senior politicians in both parties made it clear that they had very different understandings of what those words mean.
Jens Spahn, the deputy leader of the parliamentary faction for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said that “coordination” did not require agreement and that action could be taken against the will of neighbouring countries if necessary.
SPD co-chairwoman Saskia Esken, however, interpreted the passage far more strictly than what Spahn was suggesting: “We have agreed to something else, and we are sticking to it.”
Germany and all of its neighbours are members of the Schengen Area visa-free travel bloc, and all of Germany’s neighbours besides Switzerland are members of the European Union.
Esken said Germany and other countries need to come closer together at the European level instead of taking unilateral action.
“I think that is extremely dangerous and I will clearly oppose it if it continues to be debated,” she said.
