After the terrifying terror attack in Magdeburg, just weeks before the election on February 23, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann presents himself to Bild readers as a tough observer and critic of migration. According to the article, it’s about “criminal refugees” the CDU now wants to “pursue relentlessly” supported by a “new deportation hammer of the Union.”
“It’s unbearable that there are people who are multiply convicted, but no consequences follow for whether they can leave the country or not.”
Note that this formulation did not come from a “democracy-endangering” AfD politician or Chancellor candidate Alice Weidel in a verbal election campaign mode, but from CDU politician Carsten Linnemann, the current general secretary of the CDU.
The corresponding Bild article announces this in the title: “New Deportation Hammer of the Union.”
After a “warning shot” according to the CDU politician, in the future, “upon the second intentional offense, the right to stay must inevitably cease” the literal formulation, without noticeable criticism from established parties or mainstream media in the face of this harsher wording.
The article continues:
“Specifically, the CDU wants to approach the residence law (Paragraph 53 and 54). The regulation, under which offenders can still stay despite a conviction, will fall. ‘In the future, it must be clear: Whoever commits crimes here has forfeited the right of hospitality and must leave the country,’ Linnemann said. To make this happen, the CDU general wants to speed up deportations. They must be ‘more consistent and faster.'”
This almost identical formulation, along with the demands, is similar to those from AfD politician Lena Kotré and the AfD election program; however, it is still branded as “right-extremist” and “democracy-endangering” in the media, eight weeks before the election on February 23, in contrast to the AfD.
Former CDU member Hans-Georg Maaßen explained via X-Posting about the current election rhetoric of the Union:
“Deportation is not expulsion! Whoever equates the two wants to deceive the voters. Deportation is the revocation of the right to stay, expulsion is the actual removal from the country.”
Das Problem is less the revocation of the right to stay – foreigners can already be deported at the moment of a crime under 54 Abs 2 of the residence law –, but the deportation protection. Asylum seekers and recognized refugees are not deported to their home country under § 60 of the residence law. Result: they stay with a residence permit despite this.”
The ex-head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) concludes with the prognosis:
“Wager that nothing will change with the CDU?”
CDU member and MP Christoph Ploß stated:
“Whoever as a refugee in Germany commits crimes has forfeited the right of hospitality! A very good proposal from our general secretary Carsten Linnemann, which I fully support. We need the asylum shift.”
The Union partner and CSU party chairman Markus Söder, according to the Bild article, also agreed with the plans, adding in the demand:
“Not only serious crimes should lead to deportation, but also simple crimes.”
In an interview with the Deutschlandfunk, Linnemann explained the lesson from the Magdeburg attack, stating that a first lesson is that “attackers in Germany are not simply defined.”
There are “large grids” for right-wing extremists and Islamists, but “clearly not for mentally ill violent offenders.” This had shown a “large deficit” in the case of Taleb A., the Magdeburg attacker. For “these types” grids must be created. This could be achieved through “an exchange of information between authorities” such as the cooperation of security agencies, the police, and psychotherapists, Linnemann said. Therefore, “registers” for “mentally ill” people must be set up in the future.
The wording “warning shot” and the content of the Bild article were repeated by Linnemann in the Deutschlandfunk interview. The CDU general wants to conclude “additional deportation agreements, ‘if necessary, even in third countries,’ where offenders can then be flown out” the election promise to Bild readers.