Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer has called for a significant reduction in the number of refugees coming to Germany. "The numbers have to go down dramatically next year, the year after next below 100,000," the CDU politician told Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Thursday. This year alone, he said, some 350,000 people would come to Germany in addition to around one million Ukrainian refugees. "Clearly too much."
Kretschmer advocated limiting family reunification, reducing social benefits for rejected asylum seekers and continuing border controls in the future. "We need repatriation agreements with the countries and we may have to change the Basic Law with each other to achieve these things." He said a "clear signal" must go out from Germany to the countries of origin. "One will not reach Germany and if one is here, the probability that one will return to the home country in a short time is very, very high."
Kretschmer sees possible easing by mid-2024
With the appropriate measures, Kretschmer sees a "really significant" easing in irregular migration by the middle of next year. "If we don't do that, the numbers will become even higher than they are this year."
Kretschmer referred to the recent decisions of the Conference of Minister Presidents and to the next meeting of the heads of the federal states on Nov. 6. By the end of the year, a "toolbox" must be available, said Saxony's head of government. "To reduce the number of illegal migrants so that this also works again. With the kindergartens, with the schools, with the German courses, with the apartments."
Instrument box by the end of the year
Generally, one must ask oneself what has gone wrong with integration in recent years and decades, Kretschmer said. The CDU/CSU has been berated for saying "multiculturalism" has failed, he said. "But that is exactly the point." Germany wants to be a country of immigration and needs people from other cultures to enrich the country, he said. But these would have to adapt. "We have to enforce our values, our understanding of freedom, of democracy and equal rights."
The state must react to demonstrations that are ready for violence with the severity of the rule of law, Kretschmer said, referring to the attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Berlin and sometimes violent riots. Despite a ban on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, there had been hours of clashes in Berlin-Neukölln on Wednesday evening. There is freedom of expression and freedom to demonstrate, Kretschmer stressed. But where human lives, health or even property are in danger, the state must react,
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