Members of parliament sit in the plenary chamber during the session of the state parliament. © Ronny Hartmann/dpa/Archivbild
There was a lot of criticism for the approach of Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament president Gunnar Schellenberger to recruit workers from Uzbekistan. The opposition accuses him of having exceeded his competences. Now he has to take a defeat.
Magdeburg - The state government is not pursuing plans for a controversial recruitment agreement with Uzbekistan. There is no intention to "continue on this path for the recruitment of skilled workers from Uzbekistan," according to a response from the state government to a request from the Greens. The draft cooperation agreement has not yet been signed. Thus, the approach of the President of the Landtag Gunnar Schellenberger (CDU) comes to an end for the time being.
As can be seen from the state government's responses, the aim of the agreement was to attract around 2024 Uzbek workers and junior staff to the labour market in Saxony-Anhalt between 2028 and 5000. After the criticism arose at the beginning of May, Schellenberger explained that he had been approached as part of his patronage of a training year at the Sangerhausen Nursing Academy.
After the plans became known, the Ministry of Labour was entrusted with the process by Minister Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD). This was confirmed by a spokesman on request. Together with the Ministry of Economics and the Federal Employment Agency, the idea of recruiting Uzbek skilled workers should be pursued. "In doing so, we can draw on experience from recruitment projects with other countries, to which Uzbekistan has not previously belonged." Uzbekistan has not yet been designated as a prioritized immigration country.
The Greens criticized the actions of the President of the Landtag Schellenberger. He had "acted unprofessionally and ignored all constitutional competences," said the domestic policy spokesman of the Greens, Sebastian Striegel. "Unfortunately, the failure of the recruitment initiative was foreseeable."
The Left Party in the state parliament criticized the fact that the government led by Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) had not intervened earlier. She had been informed about the process at an early stage. "The handling of the important issue of the recruitment of skilled workers is grossly negligent," says a statement from the Left Party. "It is completely unclear why no one made it clear to the president of the state parliament early on that his approach was the wrong way to go." The president of the state parliament had exceeded his area of responsibility and should have left this work to experts.
Population forecasts assume that the population in Saxony-Anhalt will shrink to around 2035.1 million people by 9. Some districts would lose more than 30 percent of the employable people, it said in the response of the state government. It is therefore necessary to support a positive attitude towards attracting qualified specialists from abroad. Dpa