As of: March 15, 2024, 5:25 p.m
By: Florian Naumann
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Is the Wagenknecht party a coalition partner for the Union?
An important question in the East.
An asylum initiative has received support from the CSU.
Berlin/Munich - In the election campaign before the eastern state elections, the CDU was repeatedly slowing down: whether and how one could form a coalition with Sahra Wagenknecht's BSW remains to be seen - too much is still unclear about the Wagenknecht party's program.
Now a tough asylum push by the new party leader has received audible support from the CSU.
Wagenknecht calls for a stop to money for rejected asylum applicants – “No other country …”
Wagenknecht wants asylum seekers without protection status to no longer receive any cash benefits.
“The fact that the state continues to pay the same benefits after a rejection cannot be explained to the taxpayer.
After a transition period, cash benefits should expire if there is no protection status,” she told the
dpa
.
The fact that one in three refugees in Europe comes to Germany is also due to the fact that “it actually makes no difference whether you are recognized as entitled to protection or not,” explained Wagenknecht.
The majority of asylum seekers did not receive protection status this year.
“But anyone who makes it to us can safely assume that they will be able to stay and receive benefits permanently, even without protection status,” said the ex-leftist.
No other EU country permanently pays such high benefits to rejected asylum seekers as Germany.
Is Wagenknecht’s initiative even legally feasible?
Constitutional Court ruling raises doubts
Wagenknecht's initiative goes much further than the debate about an asylum payment card.
The controversial card would convert the benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act to cashless payment.
Asylum applications in Germany – the current situation in January and February 2024
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BaMF), decisions were made on 54,705 asylum applications in January and February.
The “overall protection rate” was around 45 percent.
According to a spokesman, this refers to all positive decisions for a right to remain, including the legal status according to the Geneva Refugee Convention, so-called subsidiary protection and bans on deportation.
However, rejected asylum seekers have the option of taking legal action, which can take years and in many cases still leads to a right to remain.
However, the Federal Constitutional Court has set strict limits on cuts in benefits for asylum seekers in several rulings.
As early as 2012, the constitutional judges held that, according to Article 20 of the Basic Law, there is a fundamental right to guarantee a humane minimum subsistence level.
“German and foreign nationals who are staying in the Federal Republic of Germany are equally entitled to this fundamental right,” said the guiding principles of the ruling at the time.
Economists also doubt that the payments actually represent a “pull factor.”
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Söder's Interior Minister Herrmann praises Wagenknecht's demand
Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) gave Wagenknecht support for the initiative.
“Benefits for asylum seekers who are legally obliged to leave the country must be reduced and may no longer correspond to the benefits of asylum seekers in the ongoing procedure,” explained Herrmann.
He's been demanding this for a long time.
Bavaria's CSU Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann welcomes Sahra Wagenknecht's latest asylum demands.
© Montage: Imago/dpa/picture-alliance/Bernd Elmenthaler/Tobias Hase/fn
Herrmann explained that he considers it remarkable that Wagenknecht took this line.
Wagenknecht has been campaigning for a tough asylum course for a long time.
Bavaria's state government is also publicly trying to take a restrictive course on asylum issues.
Prime Minister Markus Söder, for example, praised that the Free State would have a “harder” payment card.
He also referred to “incentives” to seek asylum in Germany.
Wagenknecht's BSW founds regional association before Thuringia election
Wagenknecht's “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” has meanwhile founded a Thuringian regional association in Eisenach.
The first chairmen are the local politician Katja Wolf and the entrepreneur Steffen Schütz.
The state parliament will be elected in September.
Wolf, the mayor of Eisenach, was previously a member of the Left for 30 years.
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, previously Wolf's party comrade, was irritated by the change of sides.
Wolf wanted to be a new offer for voters, he told
IPPEN.MEDIA
: “But why hasn’t it been that way for the last 25 years?”
The BSW could play an important role in the Thuringian state elections.
The parliament in Erfurt is currently largely paralyzed: there are only majorities with the Left or AfD, and the CDU actually no longer wants to work with either party.
It remains to be seen whether the Wagenknecht project appears capable of forming a coalition with the other parties.
The current survey also leaves many other questions unanswered: The Forsa Institute saw the BSW at 4 percent in January, the competition from INSA at 17 percent.
The AfD was clearly in the lead in both surveys.
(
dpa/fn
)