Berlin, (EFE). – Germany’s lower house of parliament narrowly rejected on Friday a controversial bill to restrict migration and asylum pushed by the conservative opposition and supported by the far right.
Of the 693 deputies present, 338 voted in favor, 350 against, and five abstained.
The possibility of a law passing for the first time with the backing of the far-right, second in the polls after the conservatives for the parliamentary elections on Feb. 23, led to the mobilization of a large part of the civilian population and protests against Friedrich Merz’s leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union.
Merz said the new law was a necessary response to a series of high-profile public killings by people of immigrant origins.
However, the bill could only pass with the full support of Christian Democrats, with the backing of the populist anti-immigration left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), and the AfD, against the opposition from the Social Democrats, Greens, and the Left Party.
At a press conference after the vote, Merz said he respected the will of some CDU MPs who did not support the motion.
He added that the issue of migration will now fall to the new Bundestag that will be formed after the elections, as he reiterated that he will campaign on the proposals in the motion passed on Wednesday and the bill that failed.
The similar non-binding motion was passed by parliament on Wednesday thanks to the support from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), breaking a historic taboo in Germany of not working with the far right, prompting a wave of protest from the public, politicians, and even within the CDU.
On Friday, former CDU chancellor Angela Merkel, in a rare intervention in public affairs since stepping down in December 2021, criticized Merz for pushing through proposals on migration and asylum with the support of the far-right AfD party.
On her website, Merkel wrote that Merz had said in a speech in November that he was against passing policies with the support of the generally shunned AfD, adding that she stood by her long-held conviction that there should never be a link between the mainstream parties and the AfD.
«I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound by this proposal and thereby knowingly allow the AfD to gain a majority in a vote in the German Bundestag on January 29, 2025, for the first time,» she said.
During the debate, German media discovered Merkel’s autobiography between the seats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, which was interpreted as a signal from the government benches to the CDU to listen to their former boss.
Before the debate, the Greens also took the floor, with Green MP Katharina Dröge making a «last offer» to the conservatives on behalf of the Greens and Social Democrats to send the bill back to the interior committee.
Christian Democrat Thomas Frei accused the Social Democrats and Greens of not wanting to find a solution and of wanting to send the draft back to the committee «to leave it there,» so the CDU pushed for the vote. EFE
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