Traffic light “safety package”.
Juso boss takes on Scholz
Updated on October 16, 2024Reading time: 3 min.
Before the vote in the Bundestag on the traffic light “security package”, the Chancellor warned the SPD MPs – and received further resistance.
Shortly before the planned vote in the Bundestag, the traffic light government’s “security package” is causing massive anger among the SPD and the Greens. The head of the SPD youth organization, Philipp Türmer, called on critics of the measures in the Bundestag faction to resist pressure from Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the issue. “I hope that no one who wants to vote against the package will be intimidated by it, and I can only say to everyone: Don’t let yourself be discouraged,” he told Stern magazine. The Jusos make up 49 of 207 members of the Bundestag.
At the parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Scholz (SPD) used clear words to urge critics of the package to agree. According to participants, he said that if necessary he would “make use of his options” if the coalition’s own majority was in danger.
However, leading SPD politicians fundamentally contradicted the perception that Scholz meant the question of trust. “He didn’t threaten to raise a vote of confidence,” said designated SPD general secretary Matthias Miersch on ARD. Even those close to the Chancellor said that such an interpretation was “somewhat exaggerated.” Scholz wanted to remind people of the faction rule that you discuss internally and then vote as a unit for what the majority wants.
According to dpa information, the Bundestag is scheduled to vote on the package on Friday. This would also make the names of the dissenters in the coalition public. The three traffic light factions together make up 415 of 733 MPs. So you have 48 votes more than the absolute majority. According to participants, there were 20 to 25 votes against in a test vote in the SPD parliamentary group on Tuesday.
How many dissidents there are among the Greens is unknown. The Greens’ first parliamentary director, Irene Mihalic, said she assumed that “an overwhelming majority” of her group would agree. Improvements have also been achieved compared to the original traffic light draft, for example in the planned reductions in benefits for asylum seekers for which other EU states are responsible, or in the planned expanded powers of the security authorities on the Internet. She assumes that the coalition will achieve its own majority in the Bundestag in the vote on Friday.
In an open letter, Green Party members call on people to vote against the “security package”. They criticize planned tightening of asylum law and expanded powers for the security authorities. “The so-called security package includes measures that violate fundamental and human rights. We must prevent this together,” the letter says. “It will turn Germany into a surveillance state.” As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 270 members had joined the letter.
The coalition factions SPD, Greens and FDP in the Bundestag agreed on the “security package” after the suspected Islamist attack in Solingen. Among other things, it provides for changes in gun law, stronger police control powers and measures against irregular migration.
Türmer said he expected that as many SPD MPs as possible would not agree to the “security package” in this form. “The package is going in completely the wrong direction.” It is causing a massive shift in discourse to the right, “because the fight against Islamism is being turned into a fight against refugees.” The traffic light package “harasses refugees instead of Islamists, that is the basic problem.”
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai sharply criticized the discussion in the SPD: “The blockade in parts of the SPD regarding the “security package” is outrageous,” he told the German Press Agency. “The SPD’s internal conflict is completely irresponsible. Because we need a new realpolitik on the issue of migration and internal security – the SPD must also recognize that.”
CDU leader Friedrich warned Scholz (SPD) not to use the vote of confidence as a means of pressure against his own faction. “You only threaten it once, you have to do it next time,” said Merz on the RTL/ntv program “ Frühstart “.