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Hendrik Wüst (l) speaks after a CDU parliamentary group meeting in the state parliament.
© Oliver Berg/dpa
The unusually short federal-state meeting on migration policy is almost like speed dating.
NRW Prime Minister Wüst is correspondingly frustrated with the results.
Berlin - North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) is not satisfied with the results of the federal-state conference on asylum policy.
“In migration policy, speed is needed instead of time,” said Wüst on Wednesday after the Prime Minister’s meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Berlin.
The CDU politician complained that progress was only progressing at a snail's pace, especially when it came to the issue of asylum procedures in third countries.
The federal government had already anchored a corresponding audit mandate in its coalition agreement in 2021.
“Nothing happened,” criticized Wüst.
Germany is facing major challenges.
This particularly includes the question of migration and integration.
“In a situation like this, leadership is needed,” emphasized the head of government of the most populous federal state.
“We expect the Chancellor to make this issue a top priority.”
Wüst's assessment differed significantly from the conciliatory words of his Hessian counterpart and party friend Boris Rhein.
He is chair of the Prime Minister's Conference and expressed satisfaction after the meeting: "I could not have imagined that we would ever have achieved so much together, that we would have brought so much speed to the issue."
Wüst countered: “You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that the migration pressure on Germany will be enormous this year too.” In a major effort, the federal and state governments made good decisions together at the beginning of November.
“That was 17 weeks ago,” Wüst calculated.
The federal government's inventory of implementation was sobering on Wednesday.
“The list of unfinished homework by the traffic light government is extremely long,” concluded Wüst.
“The federal government obviously did not recognize the seriousness of the situation.” dpa