BERLIN — The Bavarian coalition partners of German Chancellor Angela Merkel are urging a radical overhaul of the country’s asylum system, including the swift deportation of those who are turned down for refugee status.
The proposals coincide with the rise of a new far-right protest movement in which thousands have demonstrated against what they say is the “Islamization” of the country by Muslim immigrants.
Church authorities in Cologne have announced they will switch off the floodlights at the city’s cathedral as a counter-protest against a planned anti-immigrant march, due to take place on Monday night.
Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union, which is also a member of Ms. Merkel’s federal coalition, has proposed a new fast-track asylum process, based on the system used in Switzerland, in which “simple” cases would be decided in just six weeks.
A senior CSU figure, Joachim Hermann, the Bavarian interior minister, has called for those whose applications are rejected to be deported.
Asylum applications currently take about eight months to be processed in Germany, which has led to hunger strikes by refugees who say they are left in limbo, unable to work or earn a living until their cases are decided.
Under the CSU proposal, applicants from a country considered safe — or who have already registered in another European Union country — will have their cases decided on fast track.
The move is seen as a response to the anti-immigrant protests, which brought 17,500 people on to the streets of Dresden on Dec. 22 under the banner of Pegida, or Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.
A sharp rise in the number of people seeking asylum has placed the German system under strain. The protesters have denounced asylum seekers who they say are not genuine refugees.
But critics have accused the demonstrators of racism and xenophobia. Ms. Merkel used her New Year’s address to urge Germans: “Do not follow those who have called the rallies. Because all too often they have prejudice, coldness, even hatred in their hearts.”
The Dresden protests are due to resume Monday. Political leaders are waiting to see if they will be able to sustain the momentum that saw them grow from a few hundred demonstrators to thousands in a matter of months.
In a 19-point position paper published before Christmas, Pegida calls for resistance against a “misogynistic, violent political ideology, but not against Muslims who live here and integrate themselves.” Germany mustn’t allow “parallel societies” with Sharia law, it says.
Denounced by all parties represented in Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Dec. 22 demonstration was attended by Alexander Gauland, head of the anti-euro Alternative for Germany party, known in German as AfD, in Brandenburg state. The party, which won seats in the European Parliament and three eastern German state assemblies this year, is Pegida’s “natural ally,” Mr. Gauland has said.
Ms. Merkel carries responsibility for the rise of anti-Islamist protest groups and the anti-euro AfD, Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former minister from the CSU, told Der Spiegel magazine this week.
Her bloc has “dealt too lightly in the past with the question of the identity of our people and our nation,” he said.
The Daily Telegraph, with files from Bloomberg News
Source:: National Post
