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Christian Lindner and Friedrich Merz
Photo:
Kay Nietfeld / DPA
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the CDU denies Union faction leader Friedrich Merz the leadership claim for Germany – because of his controversial “Pascha” statement.
"
Anyone who talks about social tourism and '
little pashas
'
in general terms cannot justify any claim to leadership for modern Germany," said Lindner on Saturday at the state party conference of the NRW-FDP in Bielefeld.
"More differentiated judgments" are necessary for this.
"There are obviously integration deficits," says Lindner.
However, the FDP federal leader turned against blanket judgments.
Whether "a left-wing radical or a '
little
pasha ' threw the stone
"
- every form of disregard for the rule of law must be punished in the same way.
»Anyone who thinks our constitutional state is weak must feel its full power, no matter where they come from.«
»Migration deficits and deficits in the enforcement of existing law«
In the context of the riots on New Year's Eve, Merz said on the talk show "Markus Lanz" about dealing with teachers: "And then they want to call these children to order, and the result is that the fathers appear in the schools and themselves forbid that.
Especially when it comes to teachers, that they correct their sons, the little pashas, sometimes.«
Lindner said Germany needs different immigration laws that make it easier for qualified people to move in.
But that is only part of the process of coming to terms with the "failures in migration policy" of the past years and decades.
On the other hand, there are "migration deficits and deficits in the enforcement of existing law" in Germany.
Lindner was visiting the North Rhine-Westphalian FDP because a party conference was held there and a new state leader was elected - Henning Höne.
The 35-year-old leader of the state parliamentary group was elected in Bielefeld with only 54.4 percent to head the FDP state association with the most members.
The Munsterlander got 208 yes votes, 157 no votes (41 percent) and 17 abstentions.
There were no counter-candidates.
Höne succeeds the former deputy head of government in North Rhine-Westphalia, Joachim Stamp, who announced his resignation as a result of the FDP's poor performance in the state elections.
In the election eight months ago, the Liberals halved their result to 5.9 percent and lost government participation.
dop/dpa