Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) publicly distanced himself from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s migration policy.
Speaking to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine” Sunday edition, he said: “I’m implementing a bourgeois migration policy that is clearly distinct from the Merkel era and re‑orders migration-not only in Germany but across Europe”. He added that the coalition’s “migration turn” demonstrates that the political centre can act.
Dobrindt accused left‑wing politicians of co‑opting AfD positions when they criticize his migration overhaul. He noted that it was predictable that right‑wing critics would claim the migration turn is ineffective, and that left‑wing critics often repeat the same arguments while echoing AfD rhetoric-particularly when denying the current German government’s responsibility for reducing asylum numbers. According to him, this apparent appropriation of AfD language seems to go unchecked among left‑wing politicians.