A month before Germany’s federal election, chancellor Olaf Scholz has accused his main rival of embracing populism and far-right extremists to secure power.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz dismissed those claims and, in an emotional Bundestag debate, blamed Mr Scholz for a series of fatal attacks for which foreign nationals and asylum seekers are the chief suspects.
The CDU secured a narrow majority for non-binding resolutions on Wednesday, demanding the federal government impose permanent border controls and an entry ban on those without valid identification. Other demands in the largely symbolic resolution were powers to deport criminal foreign nationals and indefinite deportation detention.
The more important vote comes on Friday with a CDU draft bill to “limit the illegal influx of third-country nationals to Germany”. If passed, it would boost police powers to refuse entry to people without valid identification papers.
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While the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), long a proponent of tougher migration rules, is likely to back the bill on Friday, the chancellor’s Social Democratic Party and Green coalition allies are opposed.
The CDU proposals come a week after an attack in Bavaria in which two people, including a two-year-old child, were fatally stabbed in a playground. The main suspect is a 28-year-old Afghan national with a history of mental problems whose deportation date was missed because of bureaucratic delays.
While Mr Scholz spoke on Wednesday of an “enforcement deficit” in Germany’s migration agencies, Mr Merz said the country was faced with a law-and-order crisis.
“What more needs to happen in Germany, how many more people have to be murdered,” asked Mr Merz of Mr Scholz, “so that you are of the opinion that we are dealing with a danger to security and public order?”
Mr Scholz said the CDU draft bill breached national and EU law, as well as the German constitution, and would endanger plans for a common EU asylum agreement to be enacted next year.
[ CDU leader signals radical shift on migration policy following killing of toddlerOpens in new window ]
“You are openly accepting the support of the AfD for your illegal proposals,” Mr Scholz told Mr Merz. Ending a postwar German political consensus not to co-operate with the far-right, he added, was an “unforgivable mistake”.
The CDU leader agreed that the prospect of AfD support for his party’s proposals was “painful”.
“But the right decision is not wrong even if the wrong people vote for it,” he said.
Less than a month before polling day, Green Party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck said Friday’s political taboo-breaking vote could mark a “fateful moment” in postwar German politics. The CDU proposals, he said, would break the law to change the law and marked “a path into the abyss”.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel accused Mr Scholz of leading a “democracy without people, without voters”.
Even with AfD support, the CDU proposals are not certain of a parliamentary majority on Friday. The liberal Free Democratic Party, which walked out of power last November, has signalled its support, but the left-conservative BSW grouping has indicated its opposition. With 733 seats in total, the CDU needs to assemble a majority of 367. It has 196 seats, the FDP has 90 and the AfD 76 – in total still five short.
The outcome may hinge on the votes of nine independent MPs, seven of whom had prior links to the AfD.
Political scientists say voter concerns about violent killings and public safety could swing the election.
Ahead of Wednesday’s debate, MPs held a memorial service for Holocaust victims and survivors.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, without mentioning the upcoming vote explicitly, said: “Let’s not return to a dark time. We know better. Let’s do things better. Take seriously the enemies of democracy.”
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