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Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos
Photo: ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS / REUTERS
On Tuesday afternoon, Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz and SPD leader Saskia Esken appear before the Reichstag.
You have a surprising message.
The grand coalition agreed to accept more Moria refugees sooner than expected.
"As part of a German, independent contingent," said Esken, around 1,500 people will be brought to Germany from five Greek islands.
This also relieves Moria.
The agreement falls behind what the party leader had demanded on Sunday when she spoke of a "high four-digit number" on ZDF.
Scholz added that it was about families who were already recognized as those in need of protection.
It is "clear that what is European responsibility is not done."
One agrees with the coalition partner that "we have to work on an overall European regulation".
Germany will also participate, announced Scholz.
The 408 families with children that the coalition agreed to accept are now the second step.
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) announced on Friday that Germany would accept up to 150 young people unaccompanied.
Another 250 minors come to other European countries.
But that was far too little for the SPD.
Like the CDU and CSU, however, the Social Democrats were also concerned with preventing a showdown.
The sensitive issue of refugees should not endanger the coalition peace, but should be cleared away as quickly as possible.
It is a rather unworthy calculation that takes place behind the scenes during these hours.
Nowhere is this more evident than in a confidential paper from the Interior Ministry that SPIEGEL has received.
There, Minister Seehofer's officials list how Germany is helping Greece in the refugee crisis.
Pretty much everything that counts as support is included - tents, sleeping bags, folding canisters, blankets, supplied by THW and the Red Cross.
The number of asylum seekers to be admitted is also meticulously added up, apparently to counteract the impression of hard-heartedness: A total of 203 unaccompanied minors are to be brought to Germany, 243 children in need of treatment with their nuclear family, 408 families with 1,553 persons already recognized as beneficiaries.
The bottom line, according to Seehofer's officials, would be to help 2,750 people, plus benefits in kind.
This all seems very accurate, but given the tragedy on Moria, the list also reads strangely bookkeeping.
How did the agreement come about?
On Tuesday morning it was announced from the Union that there was an agreement between Seehofer and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) to take in 1,500 more refugees.
The SPD seemed surprised.
Parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich pointed out at noon that "the federal government does not consist solely of the Federal Minister of the Interior and the Federal Chancellor."
The talks are ongoing, there are also different views in the Union.
In the evening, after the agreement, the SPD presented it differently. The rumored figures were always the negotiating line of the entire government.
The number of around 1,500 other refugees has been the core of the talks since Monday evening, according to SPD circles.
Scholz was responsible for negotiating the compromise with Seehofer.
The party leaders were closely involved.
Merkel contradicts the impression of going it alone
Chancellor Merkel has to fight to get the compromise through within her own ranks.
The mood in the Union is tense.
Many in the CDU and CSU fear that the old refugee dispute could break out again, which had faded into the background in the past few months - especially now, when the party seemed halfway closed.
There was an intense debate in the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, with three main concerns dominating the discussion, namely that Germany could end up alone, that the admission could be understood as a false signal that Berlin was on a welcoming course and that in the end only one party from benefit from the situation: the AfD.
According to participants, the Thuringian MP Manfred Grund is said to have warned of the consequences of the aid: Any special path that is decided in Berlin is grist to the mill of right-wing populists.
Merkel resolutely contradicted the impression that it was a German solo effort.
Help the EU country Greece, it is about a small measure for already recognized asylum seekers - so the Chancellor is quoted.
In addition, according to the participants, she was very annoyed that nothing was going on in Europe when it came to asylum.
It now shows "the whole misery" of European asylum policy.
One rarely experiences the Chancellor so emotionally.
Merkel's luck is that the CSU is at her side, at least as long as the situation in Greece does not get further out of control.
Party leader Markus Söder, who once campaigned against "asylum tourism", is now remarkably mild and promotes Merkel's compromise.
State group leader Alexander Dobrindt also supports the Chancellor's approach, but warned at the parliamentary group meeting against a new "polarization in society about migration policy".
It is essential to avoid this.
Dobrindt and Söder are annoyed by the SPD, which, in their opinion, is responsible for the competition between numbers.
"We want to help," says Dobrindt according to participants.
But no arbitrary number should be used.
The signal to the coalition partner: So far and no further.
"With my heart I am with Cansel, with my mind with Thomas"
The SPD is also in a dilemma between morality and pragmatism, between the desire to help and the goal of no longer allowing disorderly conditions - as in 2015. Today, the numbers are much lower.
And yet there is also great concern among the comrades that there could be pull effects, i.e. that Germany's willingness to accept more people will make their way to Europe.
In the SPD parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday afternoon, according to participants, Moria was the dominant topic in addition to the local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Mützenich spoke of it as a moral issue and an issue of international law.
The conditions are not acceptable.
To a certain extent Germany will have to go it alone because one cannot wait for a larger European coalition.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also expressed himself in this spirit.
According to participants, he said that it was not very likely that other countries would join.
At the moment there are no such signals from other EU countries.
An emotional discussion followed.
The Berlin MP Cansel Kiziltepe pleaded for the admission of significantly more refugees, one just had to convince one's own voters of this.
Bundestag Vice President Thomas Oppermann, however, expressed concerns.
One should not exaggerate oneself morally, not even in relation to the countries in Europe that do not want to take in refugees like Sweden or Denmark.
That doesn't solve the problem.
Oppermann received approving applause, participants report.
Ex-party leader Martin Schulz is quoted as saying: "With my heart I am with Cansel, with my mind with Thomas."
It remains to be seen whether everyone in the SPD is happy with the compromise.
The parliamentary group's migration policy spokesman, Lars Castellucci, called the agreement a beginning.
"150 people were a pathetic number in view of the acute emergency on the islands. 1500 is now a good signal and a start," said Castellucci.
Nevertheless, Hamburg's announcement alone that it will take in 500 additional refugees shows that there is more willingness among local authorities and federal states.
"We're not going to let up."
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