CDU accuses the Chancellery of downplaying the migration crisis.
The occasion is the contributions of government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit and Chancellor’s Office Minister Wolfgang Schmidt on X/Twitter, in which the decline in asylum applications in 2024 is touted as a success.
CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s parliamentary business manager, Thorsten Frei, told the “Bild” (Monday edition): “The federal government should stop downplaying the migration crisis and finally tackle the problem at its root. It is exactly this kind of accounting trickery that is met with a lack of understanding in the population and strengthens the radical parties.”
“Fact is: It is expected that around 250,000 asylum applications will be submitted in 2024 alone. Moreover, Germany has taken in a very high number of refugees from Ukraine again last year. This asylum migration is overloading our country and is no reason for any ‘success reports’.”
According to the Chancellery, there were 213,499 asylum applications in Germany last year. These are declines of 34 and 15 percent compared to 2023 and 2022, respectively. Compared to the last five years of the previous government, however, the numbers are high. In Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government, Germany recorded 790,557 asylum applications (2022-2024). In the five years before Scholz’s term of office (2017-2021), there were a total of 769,565 asylum applications. This is evident from the numbers of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.