By Jörg Blank and Fatima Abbas, dpa
BERLIN – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his government’s migration policy in remarks to parliament on Wednesday and emphasized the country’s need to attract skilled foreigners.
“There is no country in the world with a shrinking working population that has economic growth. That is the truth we are confronted with,” Scholz said in the Bundestag, as Germany’s parliament is known.
His remarks come amid tense, acrimonious debate in Berlin over migration and asylum policy. On Tuesday evening, cross-party talks between Scholz’s coalition and the centre-right opposition collapsed with bitter criticism.
Migration policy has been the dominant topic in political debate since a knife-wielding assailant killed three people and wounded eight others last month in the western German city of Solingen.
The suspected attacker is a 26-year-old Syrian man who had evaded an order to be deported from Germany to Bulgaria, where he was first registered in the European Union.
Scholz on Wednesday sharply criticized opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), accusing him of posturing in the right-wing press while failing to engage in good-faith negotiations over genuine policy changes.
German citizens don’t want to see theatrical performances, but serious and serious politics, Scholz claimed.
“Sloganeering, not getting anything done,” Scholz shouted at Merz and other lawmakers from the centre-right bloc. It would have been good to find real joint solutions to the migration issue, said Scholz: “We will never slam a door, you can always come back.”
Scholz said his government is in the process of achieving the “biggest turnaround in dealing with irregular migration,” citing efforts to accelerate deportations, reforms to the European Union’s common asylum policy and a set of security proposals set to be presented to parliament later this week.
“Don’t grumble – act and tackle. That is our motto,” said Scholz.
Merz bristled at Scholz’s accusations, calling them “disgraceful,” and flatly rejected the chancellor’s invitation to further talks in his response on Wednesday. Merz said that policies offered by Scholz’s government on Tuesday fell well short of what is needed to limit migration into the country.
“And that is why we are not entering into an endless loop of talks with you,” said Merz. Instead, Scholz’s government should bring a concrete set of proposals to parliament for public debate, Merz said.
In his remarks, Scholz stressed the need to remain open to immigration in Germany while also properly monitoring and managing arrivals.
“We are a country that offers protection to those who are politically persecuted, who are running for their lives, who have to save their lives, and that is in our constitution and we are not putting that up for debate,” said Scholz.
He warned that the shrinking working population would cause major economic problems. In some sectors, the working population could be halved in just a few decades, he said.
“We want people here to get to work, to learn the German language, to abide by the law, to earn a living, but then also to have a say,” Scholz said, likening that goal to the policies in Canada and the United States.
