The federal government wants to demonstrate its ability to act with the “security package” after Solingen. But in the Bundestag there is resistance among its own members.
The traffic light coalition is fighting for a majority in the Bundestag for the so-called security package. According to t-online information, there was a lot of criticism of the planned reforms in the parliamentary group meetings of the SPD and the Greens on Tuesday afternoon. With the package, the federal government wants to enforce stricter gun laws, asylum laws and more powers for the security authorities after the Islamist terrorist attack in Solingen.
At the meeting, the parliamentary group leader of the Green Party spoke of more than 40 MPs who either do not want to agree to the project in the Bundestag or are at least still skeptical, as several participants unanimously reported. According to participants, around 30 members of the SPD did not raise their hand when the parliamentary group decided on the issue.
The members of both the Greens and the SPD do not assume that everyone will actually vote against the package in the planned vote in the plenary session this week. However, the Greens are still saying that 15 to 20 MPs could end up rejecting the proposal. In the SPD, whose Interior Minister Nancy Faeser took the lead in negotiating the security package, some can imagine around ten dissenters.
The majority of the traffic light coalition in the Bundestag is at risk if there are 49 dissenters in full attendance. Despite this fairly comfortable majority in parliament, leading Social Democrats and Greens appear to be taking the large number of skeptics very seriously. The MPs have a free mandate, but in fact the faction leaders insist on party discipline when it comes to their own projects and try to convince dissenters right up to the end.
At the SPD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to have personally taken the floor in the parliamentary group meeting after criticism and put pressure on a majority. “The law needs its own majority, otherwise I have to make use of my options,” Scholz was quoted as saying by participants. Some interpret this as an indirect threat of a vote of confidence to discipline the MPs.
The law needs its own majority, otherwise I have to make use of my options.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz according to participants
The Greens are also said to be giving some drastic warnings in the internal faction debate about a possible break in the coalition if a majority for the project is not achieved. There was criticism of the tightening of asylum law and the regulations on automated digital facial recognition.
The original government draft for the security package was recently clarified and changed in some places in the Bundestag. The changes have been in place since late Monday evening, but were unable to completely break resistance in the Bundestag.
Some Greens and Social Democrats remain particularly skeptical about asylum law. Despite clarifications, the rule that Dublin cases can have their support reduced to a minimum is criticized if the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees considers it “legally and actually” possible for them to receive benefits in another EU state. Critics argue that this means people are in danger of being stuck for a long time below the subsistence level.