The opposition earlier this evening walked out of talks with the federal government on a policy to curb irregular immigration, citing a “failure” of the negotiations, due to the reluctance of the governing coalition to implement truly effective measures.

“The government is headless,” said its leader Christian Democratic Party (CDU) Friedrich Mertz. “The effort to find common ground has failed (…) The federal government is apparently hopelessly divided internally and cannot agree on effective measures. The government coalition capitulates before the challenge of irregular immigration. The government is incompetent and headless,” emphasized Mr. Mertz, speaking to BILD.

To them GreenThe head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) federal parliamentarians claimed responsibility. “The coalition is green-blocked and unable to take effective measures to curb irregular immigration. This inability to act is a threat to order and social cohesion in Germany. The government’s refusal to implement effective measures, such as the blanket rejection at the border, constitutes capitulation,” said Mr Dobrid.

For its part, the government confirmed the withdrawal of the Christian Union from the talks, stressing, however, that the government partners had every intention of adopting its proposals, even on the issue of rejections at the border. “They got up to leave, while many issues we hadn’t even touched on yet,” said Foreign Minister Analena Burbock (Greens), while Justice Minister Marco Busman (FDP) noted the government was ready to continue talks.

The CDU’s domestic policy chief Torsten Frei accused the government that its plan would not lead to additional rejections at the border, but to procedures within Germany. According to Der Spiegel magazine, the CDU even wanted a state of emergency to be declared so that Germany could deviate from normal European procedures. The government, on the other hand, does not consider that there is a legal basis for such a thing.