In a recent statement, Grune Parliament’s business leader Irene Mihalic rejected the plan proposed by Union’s Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, which essentially amounts to a de facto entry ban for illegal migrants. Mihalic told the Welt that the move will be “instrumentalized in the election campaign for all sorts of demands”.
According to Mihalic, the same applies to Merz’s demand. “The Union, particularly Friedrich Merz, is well aware that what he is demanding is not compatible with European law and the existing constitutional law” she said. “Several experts in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Justice have confirmed this.” Mihalic emphasized that it is not a question of political will, but of law, and therefore, it will not be possible to implement the plan.
Mihalic made it clear that the question of whether the Merz plan could be implemented with the Greens as a possible coalition partner of the Union does not even arise, as it is a matter of law, not politics. “Friedrich Merz can wish for it as much as he likes, but he must also abide by the law and the European law, which is unambiguous in this matter” she said.
The Greens, however, do not rule out a harder migration policy in principle, Mihalic emphasized. They had shown this in the previous government, she said, by closing legislative gaps and introducing a range of measures to change the migration policy fundamentally. “We have fundamentally changed the migration policy, and this is not to be denied, and we also see that these measures are working” she said.
Mihalic pointed out that the number of asylum seekers has decreased significantly, and therefore, one cannot speak of an overload of the system anymore. “And if one really takes a close look at what happened in Aschaffenburg, then I see no shortage in the legislation, but rather a shortage in the implementation” she concluded.