2023-09-29 15:33:31
Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger largely agreed with CDU leader Friedrich Merz after his controversial statements about health services for asylum seekers. “That is of course a bit exaggerated and flippantly worded and it arouses people’s minds,” said the Free Voters leader on the television station “Welt-TV” on Friday. “But the reality is that many people are in our social security funds or have access to our social security funds and medical care, which cost us a lot of money.”
Merz had called on the federal government to make a drastic comparison to curb irregular migration. “They will go crazy, the people, when they see that 300,000 asylum seekers have been rejected, are not allowed to leave the country, are getting full benefits, are getting full medical care,” said Merz in “Welt-Talk”. “They sit at the doctor and have their teeth changed, and the German citizens next door don’t get any appointments.” The SPD and the Greens then accused him of populism.
Aiwanger: Benefits for asylum seekers that are too generous
The Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister, however, agreed with Merz. “First of all, there are actually hundreds of thousands of people in Germany illegally,” said Aiwanger. “Of course, these people need medical care and then stand in the way of other treatments.” But refusing treatment as a consequence would be “inhumane.” His solution is to “not let so many people into the country at all”.
In addition, Germany is too generous in its benefits for asylum seekers, said Aiwanger. He called for the amount of cash paid out per month for asylum seekers to be reduced.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann also defended Merz’s statements. He said on Friday in Berlin: “Friedrich Merz addresses difficult issues and we are interested in addressing them but also solving them.” There is support for the statements in the CDU. Linnemann also reiterated his call on the traffic light parties to find solutions on the issue of migration “across parties from the middle of parliament”. “The offer still stands.”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Social Minister Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) said that there was no major problem with dental treatment for asylum seekers in his country. “In this area, we in the ministry have no indication that this is a big problem.” However, Laumann referred to other problems in the municipalities, for example when it comes to accommodating refugees.
“The AfD is kicking itself”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) said of the CDU leader’s statements on Thursday evening on the sidelines of the German Television Awards ceremony in Cologne: “There are a lot of people who are currently worried about the cohesion of society. Everyone who looks after refugees is currently at their limit, whether it’s the municipalities, whether it’s the schools, the daycare centers, the kindergartens. The refugee workers also tell us that it is simply too much. This also applies to the social security systems, and I think that’s what Friedrich Merz wanted to point out.”
Kim Björn Becker, Timo Frasch, Matthias Wyssuwa Published/Updated: Recommendations: 11 A comment from Reinhard Müller Published/Updated: Recommendations: 186 Kim Björn Becker Published/Updated: Recommendations: 31
The Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party), however, accused Merz of running the AfD’s business. “The AfD is kicking itself, feels confirmed and even supported by the confirmation of its clichés,” he told the editorial network Germany. Anyone who “serves resentment distracts from the actual problems of medical care,” he added, referring to the growing concentration of medical practices in the hands of large companies.
Ramelow’s party colleague Daphne Weber, a member of the executive board of the party, reported according to a report by ZDF filed a criminal complaint with the Arnsberg public prosecutor’s office for sedition. ZDF quotes from the ad: “His agitation against refugees primarily serves as an election campaign maneuver. He stirs up hatred against a group of people and thus endangers public peace.” Merz uses “narratives from the extreme right that asylum seekers who are obliged to leave the country would not leave the country because they ignored German laws” and that the German welfare state still encourages this behavior.
In fact, asylum seekers – including those tolerated whose application was rejected – only receive acute medical care for the first 18 months, but then have almost full access to the health system.
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