SPD Calls for Restraint in Debate on Dealing with Syrian Refugees
The SPD is calling on the Union to hold back in the debate on the further handling of Syrian refugees. “Fabricating a plan to stop the admission of Syrian refugees, as CDU and CSU are doing, is populist and irresponsible at this point in time,” said SPD faction vice-director Dirk Wiese to the Rhineland Post (Tuesday’s edition).
It is currently not foreseeable whether there will be a more intensified return of refugees in the near future, “since the situation in their home country is still completely unclear.” One should now refrain from making predictions and forecasts. “I urge caution at this time. Scarcely any expert had seriously forecast this development in the country,” Wiese said.
Meanwhile, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the chair of the European Parliament’s Defense Committee and a member of the FDP, finds the timing premature for discussing the fate of Syrian refugees in Germany even now.
“We saw the pictures yesterday of people who are happy because the perpetrator is gone,” she said to the TV station Welt. “Starting the discussion now, in this very moment, as to whether one can or should deport Syrians, is already a bit off-beam. It is a complex and confusing situation, and that should first be sorted out before we try to make political capital out of it here.”
However, she also said, “We will indeed give people a chance now to return to their homeland in Syria, the Syrians who want to go back. We must not forget, they have fled from this regime of Assad and want to go back home.” Others, who have integrated here, are well taken care of here. “So, I believe we should weigh every step and see what can be achieved by Germany, by Europe, so that the people have a perspective in Syria.