Germany’s coalition government will play its part in ensuring the success of cross-party talks on curbing migration, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, as the country’s mood grows increasingly heated over the issue.
“It’s not our fault if it doesn’t work out. I hope it does, because that would be good for society and peace,” he told a rally in his constituency of Teltow in the eastern state of Brandenburg, near Berlin.
The three coalition parties and the conservative opposition will meet on Tuesday with the leaders of the country’s 16 states to determine a joint position.
The cross-party initiative was launched in response to a mass stabbing by a 26-year-old Syrian man at a festival in the western German city of Solingen on August 23, which left three people dead and eight others injured.
Ahead of the talks, Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative opposition party CDU/CSU, said he would only continue the talks if illegal migrants were immediately returned at Germany’s borders.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had previously called for a willingness to compromise from all those involved in the cross-party talks.
Steinmeier, who has a largely ceremonial role, said in Berlin that he was following the consultations between the centre-left government and the conservative opposition in the expectation that they would reach a common understanding.
“I am convinced that it is up to the parties of the democratic center to find solutions to issues that concern many people,” Steinmeier said, adding that a joint effort across party lines is needed.
Steinmeier previously promised that Germany as a whole would strive for a solution to the problem of illegal migration.
“We must do everything we can to implement the rules that are already in place to restrict access and the rules that we are now putting in place,” he said.
Immediately after the attack in Solingen, two state elections were held, with anti-immigration parties on both the left and the right delivering strong performances.
Package of measures will be discussed next week
Scholz’s three-party coalition has agreed on the details of a package of measures to strengthen security after the attack, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said on Saturday.
A bill has been submitted to the coalition parliamentary groups for consideration, he said, adding that it could be discussed in the full legislative session as early as next week.
The broad outline of the proposal was unveiled late last month and includes tougher rules on carrying knives in public, faster deportations, tougher new limits on asylum seekers’ benefits and greater police powers to tackle suspected Islamist threats.
“It is now up to parliament to get all this moving quickly,” said Buschmann.
But the measures may not go far enough for the opposition, which is demanding strict limits on the number of asylum seekers allowed into the country.
