Friedrich Merz, the CDU’s chancellor candidate, has demanded relaxations in data protection after the deadly Magdeburg attack. “The findings of the police authorities and intelligence services must also be accessible to the foreign authorities” Merz told the Welt am Sonntag. “My impression is that we again have some data protection problems that we shouldn’t have.”
Merz is calling for a closer data exchange among the security authorities. “Both the constitutional protection authorities and the police, the foreign authorities and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees must be able to form a complete picture of these cases, so that they don’t have to put together the mosaic of a threat only piece by piece and not even after a severe crime, as we saw again in the case of Magdeburg, but only after a second offense” Merz said. “And to prevent attacks or further crimes, foreign criminals should be deported at the latest after their second offense.”
In the event of a CDU victory in the federal election on February 23, the chancellor candidate and CDU chairman also announced a fundamental correction of the previous migration policy. More rejections at the border of attempted entry and easier deportations in the event of a criminal record are needed.
“We are seeing more and more clearly that we are no longer coping with the large number of people coming to Germany, often not in need of protection at all. Something fundamental must change at that” Merz said. In the first eleven months of 2024, 45.3 percent of asylum applications were approved because a need for protection was recognized. Asylum seekers are also receiving temporary tolerations, for example, because a deportation is not possible due to humanitarian or legal reasons.
The Union’s chancellor candidate also wants to change the current procedure for granting German citizenship. Double citizenship “should always remain a justified exception and not become the permanent rule” Merz said. “Naturalization should stand at the end of an integration process and not at the beginning, in the hope that naturalization itself will only later make a greater contribution to integration” the CDU politician said. “The coalition’s decision to combine fast naturalization and double citizenship creates simply too many problems in Germany, and that’s why we must change that very quickly.