A new controversy has erupted over the right course in Germany’s migration policy, sparked by statements from prominent historian Heinrich August Winkler. In a guest article in the “Spiegel”, Winkler expressed support for a harder asylum course and even advocated for rejections at German borders, which puts him at odds with his SPD party, which considers rejections to be in violation of European and constitutional law.
CDU Interior Affairs politician Alexander Throm sees Winkler’s proposal as breaking the “migration policy blockade” of the minority government comprising the SPD and the Greens. “It’s not the German Basic Law that’s the problem here, but the political conviction of Red-Green” Throm told the “Handelsblatt” (Wednesday edition). The Basic Law allows for “controlled and limited migration” from asylum seekers and “I would even go further: the protection of the German border is not only permitted, but required by the constitution.”
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki made a similar statement, saying that Winkler had “unmasked the wrong argumentation of the Greens and the SPD” in the asylum debate. “A bit more honesty from the SPD and the Greens in the asylum debate could not only help in the matter, but would also make radical positions in the discourse irrelevant.” The controversy was sparked by several deadly attacks, including one in Aschaffenburg, in which the suspects were migrants. The Union has subsequently sharpened its migration course and called for blanket rejections at the border.