Response from Berlin

In a press conference that lasted an hour and a quarter, Friedrich Merz, head of the official opposition and president of the Christian Democrats, the party that is consistently ahead in all opinion polls and came first in June’s European elections, presented proposals for managing immigration from here and beyond, after the morning meeting he had with Olaf Soltz in the chancellery. Just a few days after the Islamic State terrorist attack in Solingen and five days before the elections in the states of Saxony and Thuringia, where the Far Right is ahead.

The meeting had been planned for six weeks, he told German and foreign political correspondents. It originally concerned the stationing in Germany from 2026 of US long-range Tomahawk missiles and its consequences for German security policy. However, the developments changed the agenda. After the Islamist attack before the European elections in Mannheim, came the terrorist attack on Solingen’s “Festival of Diversity” and the new data immediately calls for a change of course in German immigration policy, he said. “That’s enough!” he repeated today and spoke of a policy of “words without action” and vague pledges of “tough measures” against irregular immigration and against sympathizers of terrorist networks such as the Islamic State, Friedrich Merz said.

I then openly called on the German government to work directly with the Christian Democrats, the second largest party in parliament, to find solutions for the country. “I told the chancellor my opinion, that his own country has gotten out of his control,” said Friedrich Mertz, saying that in addition to being the head of the official opposition, he is also a citizen with Olaf Solz as chancellor. He also stressed that his positions on immigration, asylum policy and deportations are not related to the upcoming elections in eastern Germany, where the Alternative for Germany is racing, nor are they “tactical”. They are required by the new political necessity.

The Mertz proposals and the agreement with Soltz

Merz used softer tones than in the letter he sent to his constituents over the weekend and did not repeat the position of an absolute “stop” for Germany to accept all asylum applications from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. But he reiterated the view of stricter legislative and if necessary constitutional changes to the rules defining the asylum procedure in Germany with the aim of limiting irregular immigration, introducing stricter and more stable border control mechanisms as well as strengthening the powers and funding of the Federal Police and the individual competent security authorities. But he rejected the idea of ​​a “fence” on the German border along the lines of other countries, saying that systematized border controls along the lines of Sweden would suffice.

In fact, he said that the discussion on these changes could start as early as next week and the first session of the Plenary of the German parliament after the summer break. He emphasized that the parliamentary power of the SPD and the Christian Union CDU/CSU is sufficient for the tightening of immigration laws, bypassing even the two parties of the current coalition government, the Greens and the Liberals, whom he accused of posing parliamentary and legal obstacles. In fact, referring to the European asylum policy and the framework of the Dublin regulations, he emphasized that the EU should also act immediately to examine why the asylum application system does not work in the first countries of registration.

In the afternoon he mentioned that he will also have a conversation with the head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He pointed out that the EU’s Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union gives a country the right to declare a refugee “state of emergency” and in that case, Friedrich Merz said, “national German law would prevail over European law.” An opinion, of course, which is already being commented on by both members of the coalition government, the opposition and experts with reservations. However, Mertz stated that “there should be no taboo” and this even concerns the revision of the German Constitution of 1949. However, a constitutional revision of the right to asylum under Article 16a requires a two-thirds majority in both legislative bodies, he observes tagesschau.de.

Dress rehearsal for a “Grand Coalition”?

In his first reaction to the words of Friedrich Merz, Chancellor Olaf Solz declared from Jena that he was “open” to a cooperation with Merz on immigration. “We will certainly use every means, so that we always make good laws for Germany,” he said characteristically, stressing: “International conventions apply. EU rules apply. Our Constitution applies. And of course after that, any proposal with a practical impact is welcome.”

Friedrich Mertz spoke of a very positive atmosphere between the two men in the morning at the chancellery. In fact, as he said, before the conversation that lasted about an hour, they ate breakfast together. Furthermore, answering a question about whether the proposal of close cooperation with the Social Democrats constitutes a de facto challenge to the three-party coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, he avoided answering explicitly. But he emphasized in many places that what he is looking for is solving problems “with the governing coalition or those parties that make it up and have good will for such a thing”. He believes, however, as he said, that the SPD and CDU “could go on their own on issues such as immigration without the opinion of the Greens and the Liberals.”

Some analysts believe that this could be a test of an informal “Grand Coalition” scheme of cooperation, ie SPD and CDU/CSU, on issues of national importance ahead of the 2025 federal election. Merz himself, however, said that the idea of ​​offering a helping hand in Solz, he got it simply by listening to former Federal President and pastor Joachim Gauck’s exhortation that “the parties of the democratic center, Christian Democrats/Christian Socialists, Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens should agree on immigration management in order to reduce immigration flows to Germany”.