by Kjeld Neubert
German opposition leader Friedrich Merz urged the government to enforce the Dublin Regulation after meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday (27 August) and suggested declaring a state of national emergency if the rules cannot be enforced.
In the wake of an alleged stabbing attack by a Syrian migrant that left three people dead, the federal government’s migration policy is at the top of the political agenda at a time when the ruling coalition is under immense pressure and is expected to lose two upcoming state elections by large margins.
On Tuesday (27 August), Friedrich Merz, the leader of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU/EPP), increased the pressure on Scholz’s government.
As the attacker was first registered in Bulgaria, Merz demanded that the Dublin rules be applied more strictly in future. According to the Dublin rules, the EU country of first entry is responsible for asylum seekers.
As Merz fears that current EU law prevents the enforcement of the Dublin rules, he is pushing for a change at the EU level.
If such a change is not possible in the short term, the opposition leader demanded “to declare a national emergency with regard to refugees” to enforce the regulation, as national law could then trump EU legislation.
“If it cannot be adhered to, then I am convinced that we have the right to turn people back at Germany’s external borders,” he said.
The CDU has steadily risen in the polls since the last federal election in September 2021. With 32% of the vote, the party is well ahead of the three governing parties combined, which have lost favour with voters in recent months. Scholz’s SPD has fallen to 15%, while the Greens (12%) and the liberal FDP (5%) have suffered similar losses.
To resolve the Dublin issue at the European level, Merz announced that he would be meeting with his party colleague and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the afternoon.
Merz suggested that “if [rejection of migrants at the border] is not possible for reasons of European law […]. then it must be resolved […] to make it possible.”
However, declaring a state of emergency “is not at the discretion of the EU Commission,” Merz, also a former MEP, explained.
*first published in: Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
