Dr. Raja SHAHEDThe German parliament has rejected immigration measures put forward by the conservative opposition and backed by the far-right.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz, who is tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor, had tried to rely on support from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the second time in a week – but the bill was defeated by 350 votes to 338.
The strategy was widely condemned, including by Merz’s predecessor as CDU leader and former chancellor Angela Merkel, who accused him of turning his back on a previous pledge not to work with AfD in the Bundestag.
Merz defended his actions as “necessary” and said he had not sought the party’s support.
“A right decision doesn’t become wrong just because the wrong people agree to it,” he said.
The CDU leader had been hoping that a tougher stance on migration would win over supporters of the AfD – but his reliance on that party for this vote risks losing more moderate voters.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Germany on Thursday night in opposition to the CDU’s cooperation with the far-right.
The CDU is leading in the polls ahead of Germany’s snap election next month. The AfD is currently polling in second place, although Merz has ruled out any kind of coalition with them.
Wednesday’s vote saw a non-binding motion over changes to immigration law pass through parliament. Friday’s vote was on draft legislation which was aimed at curbing immigration numbers and family reunion rights.
The proposed legislation was opposed by parties including current Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). Scholz is among those to have criticised Merz’s reliance on the AfD, calling it an “unforgivable mistake”.
“Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far-right,” he said.
In a rare political intervention, Merkel said Merz was breaking a pledge made in November to work with the SDP and the Greens to pass legislation, not the AfD. She described the pledge as an “expression of great state political responsibility”.
On Wednesday, Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, accused mainstream parties of disrespecting German voters by refusing to work with her party.
Sections of the AfD have been classed as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence.
Germany’s already fraught debate on immigration has flared up following a series of fatal attacks where the suspect is an asylum seeker, most recently in the city of Aschaffenburg.
It has become a central issue in campaigning for the election, which was triggered by the collapse of Scholz’s governing coalition.
MAN SHOT DEAD IN SWEDEN
A man who sparked violent protests after burning the Quran has been shot dead in Sweden.
Salwan Momika was killed in an apartment in Södertälje, Stockholm, on Wednesday evening, prosecutors told the BBC.
Unrest broke out after Mr Momika set fire to a copy of Islam’s holy book outside Stockholm Central Mosque in 2023.
Stockholm police said in a statement that five people had been arrested after a man in his 40s was shot dead overnight.
Officers were called to a suspected shooting at an apartment in Hovsjö around 23:11 local time (22:11 GMT) on Wednesday.
The man, who has not been named by police, was found with gunshot wounds and taken to hospital. The force announced he had died on Thursday morning.
Local media reported that Mr Momika had been livestreaming on social media around the time he was shot.
Mr Momika, an Iraqi living in Sweden, was charged in August alongside one other with “agitation against an ethnic group” on four occasions in the summer of 2023.
The verdict, due to be delivered on Thursday, was postponed after it was “confirmed that one of the defendants had died”, Stockholm District Court said.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sweden’s security services were involved in the investigation because there was “obviously a risk that there were links to foreign powers,” SVT reported.
Mr Momika carried out a series of anti-Islam protests, sparking outrage in many Muslim-majority countries.
Unrest took place at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice, while the Swedish ambassador was expelled from the city amid a diplomatic row.
Swedish police had given Mr Momika permission for the protest in which he burnt the holy book, in accordance with the country’s free-speech laws.
The government later pledged to explore legal means of abolishing protests that involve burning texts in certain circumstances.
FAR-RIGHT ACTIONS ROCK GERMAN PARLIAMENT
Far-right vote on asylum rocks German parliament
Germany’s parliament descended into heckles and recriminations on Wednesday after a “firewall” against working with the far-right cracked.
A non-binding motion calling for tougher border and asylum rules passed with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). During the stormy session, politicians of various parties hurled criticism and blame at each other.
Conservative CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who tabled the plans, defended his actions as “necessary”. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed the move as an “unforgivable mistake”.
Merz now plans to propose actual legislation on Friday – again with possible AfD backing – aimed at curbing immigration numbers and family reunion rights.
But his proposed measures are highly unlikely to come into effect this side of February’s snap election and – if they did – could clash with EU law.
Referring to the AfD’s support for the motion, the CDU leader told the Bundestag that a policy wasn’t wrong just because the “wrong people back it”.
“How many more children have to become victims of such acts of violence before you also believe there is a threat to public safety and order?” he asked.
The CDU leader – tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor because of his party’s leading position in the polls – has also insisted he has neither sought nor wants AfD support.
“Thinking about how the AfD fraction will cheer and their happy faces makes me feel uncomfortable,” he told lawmakers.
Chancellor Scholz – a social democrat whose coalition government collapsed last year – castigated Merz for his actions.
“Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far right.”
Germany’s already fraught debate on immigration has flared up following a series of fatal attacks where the suspect is an asylum-seeker, most recently in the city of Aschaffenburg.
It has become a central issue in campaigning for the election, triggered by the collapse of Scholz’s governing coalition.
Wednesday’s CDU motion, supported by the AfD and liberal FDP, called for a “ban” on anyone entering Germany without the right documents – but it cannot compel the current minority government to act.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of the firewall against the far-right in German political culture. Remembrance of the Holocaust plays a fundamental role in modern Germany.
Before Wednesday’s vote, the Bundestag held its yearly commemoration for the victims of the Nazis, during which 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Roman Schwarzmann addressed parliament.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also delivered a speech to MPs, calling for the Nazis’ crimes never to be forgotten. There should be no “line drawn” ending our historical responsibility as Germans, he said.
This directly contradicts the policy of the AfD, which has criticised German memory culture and argued for a broader view of the country’s history.
That’s partly why so many were shocked when Friedrich Merz said last week that he didn’t care if the AfD supported his parliamentary motions or not.
This contradicts not only his previous statements, but also the official line of his party, which bans the conservatives from relying on the far-right in parliamentary votes.
Sections of the AfD have been classed as right-wing extremists by domestic intelligence, but the party is currently polling second, although Merz has ruled out any kind of coalition with them.
This week, latest polls showed that support for the conservative CDU had slipped a couple of percentage points to 28%, while the AfD increased slightly to 20%.
AfD leader Alice Weidel has said the firewall amounts to an “anti-democratic cartel agreement” and has predicted it will crumble over the coming years.
Opening the door to leaning on support from the far-right is a gamble for Merz, who believes that his increasingly radical stance on migration will win back right-wingers who are tempted to vote for the AfD.
But in so doing, he could risk losing support from the centre.
With these latest parliamentary motions, Merz has definitively said goodbye to the era of his more centrist conservative predecessor Angela Merkel, who a decade ago famously said “wir schaffen das” or “we can do it” when Germany was faced with large numbers of migrants and refugees.
These motions are symbolic, signalling what the conservatives would like to do in power. But they are also a concrete signal to voters about who Merz appears prepared to accept support from.
Critics say he has broken his word on the firewall. No wonder the AfD cheered in parliament when the result was announced.
Merkel criticises her party leader after far-right vote
Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised her own party leader for passing a motion in parliament with support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
In a statement, Merkel accused CDU leader Friedrich Merz of turning his back on a previous pledge not to work with AfD in the Bundestag.
The parliament descended into heckles on Wednesday after votes from the far-right party meant a non-binding CDU motion on tougher immigration rules was passed.
This is a highly unusual intervention by the woman who led Germany for 16 years, stepping in to criticise the actions of her former political rival.
Merz, who is tipped to be Germany’s next chancellor due to CDU’s lead in the polls, said on Wednesday that a policy was not wrong just because the “wrong people back it” and that he had not sought nor wanted AfD’s support.
But Merkel accused him of breaking a pledge he made in November to work with the Social Democratic Party and the Greens to pass legislation, not AfD.
This was to ensure “neither in determining the agenda nor in voting on the matter here in the House will there be a random or actually brought about majority with those from the AfD,” read a quote from Merz in Merkel’s statement.
The former chancellor said she fully supported this earlier “expression of great state political responsibility”.
“I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal and thereby knowingly allow the AfD to gain a majority in a vote in the German Bundestag on 29 January 2025 for the first time.”
She said “all democratic parties” needed to work together “to do everything they can to prevent such terrible attacks in the future as those that took place shortly before Christmas in Magdeburg and a few days ago in Aschaffenburg”.
This is a rare intervention from Merkel.
To openly criticise her own party’s candidate for chancellor – just weeks out from an election – is a big move and will add rocket fuel to a an already explosive story in German politics.
Merkel and Merz go back a long way – and not as the best of friends.
He was famously side-lined by Merkel in the early 2000s after she won out in a CDU power struggle.
Merz would go on to quit front-line politics for many years before making his return.
Since then, he has criticized Merkel’s legacy – particularly her handling of the migration crisis.
They also have very different visions for the party, with Merkel seen as a more pragmatic centrist and Merz from the CDU’s more traditional, conservative wing.
Wednesday’s vote broke a longstanding taboo in German politics – and Merz is also due to propose legislation on Friday that the AfD could support.
The current German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, called the move an “unforgivable mistake”.
“Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany over 75 years ago, there has always been a clear consensus among all democrats in our parliaments: we do not make common cause with the far right,” he said.
Germania, bocciata al Bundestag la legge sulla stretta sui migranti: non passa per 12 voti
La proposta era stata sostenuta dalla destra e dall’estrema destra. Weidel: “La vera svolta sui migranti è possibile solo con Afd”
In Germania non è passata la proposta di legge sulla stretta sui migranti voluta dalla Cdu e sostenuta dall’estrema destra di Afd. A votare a favore sono stati 338 deputati, contro 350. Si sono astenuti cinque parlamentari.
Il testo mirava a limitare i ricongiungimenti familiari e rendere più facile il fermo di cittadini stranieri che arrivino alla frontiera privi di documenti.
Due giorni fa, una mozione dei conservatori di Friederich Merz per chiedere all’esecutivo norme più severe sui respingimenti aveva raccolto il sostegno del partito di ultradestra guidato da Alice Weidel e scatenato un terremoto politico.
“Mi dispiace che non si sia arrivati a un’approvazione della nostra proposta. Ma sono grato che il gruppo parlamentare abbia seguito la strada sulla quale ci eravamo accordati. Sono 12 i parlamentari dell’Unione che non hanno votato a favore e questo lo rispetto”. Lo ha detto il leader dell’Unione Cdu-Csu, Friedrich Merz, in uno statement dopo il voto al Bundestag.
“Una vera svolta sull’immigrazione è possibile solo con Afd. Quella che abbiamo visto oggi è l’implosione di un partito conservatore”, così la leader di Afd Alice Weidel, ha commentato subito dopo il voto. Weidel ha definito il risultato “un’amara sconfitta” di Friedrich Merz, mentre gli altri partiti sono nel “puro caos”.
Nonostante al parlamento tedesco la temuta proposta di legge della Cdu per una stretta sulla politica migratoria non abbia ottenuto la maggioranza, la mobilitazione partita ieri contro ogni forma di collaborazione con l’ultradestra di Afd non accenna a diminuire. Per il fine settimana sono in programma manifestazioni nelle principali città tedesche. Domani sono previste a Lipsia, Colonia, Stoccarda, Mannheim. Domenica tocca a Berlino, Norimberga, Kassel e Ulm.
