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Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Deportation flights signal Germany's pivot to hardline stance on migration
The Qassim family were not in the Potsdam court last Tuesday to hear the ruling in their favour. Five hours previously, the parents and their four children aged five to 17 had been bundled on to a charter flight to Baghdad. They are now back in the country they fled in 2014 after the Islamic State terror organisation murdered 5,000 members of their Yazidis (Kurdish) minority. After landing, 12-year-old Maatz Quassim sent a voice note to a Berlin radio station about the dramatic end, in the middle of the night, of their happy life in Brandenburg. READ MORE 'They shouted 'police' loudly and shone their torches in our faces,' she said. 'Now we're afraid.' In a statement, the federal interior ministry said the deportation flight with the Qassims and 37 others 'demonstrates that we are continuing to push forward resolutely with a migration policy shift'. Last May, Germany's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) took office promising a tougher approach to migration and asylum, imposing checks on all German borders and promising 'more pressure on returns'. The shift is a response to two developments. The first: a series of fatal knife and car attacks in recent years where, in many cases, perpetrators were failed asylum application with overdue deportation orders. Last week's flight, the statement said, deported '14 single men, some of whom have a criminal record'. 'We will continue to carry out deportations,' the ministry concluded, 'provided they are legally and effectively possible.' There are no criminals in the Qassim family and, while doubtlessly effective, the legality of their deportation is in doubt. The court ruling granted them leave to challenge the refusal of their asylum application. The Brandenburg state refugee council denounced the dawn raid as a 'scandalous' example of Germany 's new 'deportation agenda, driven by the right wing'. 'The fact that they are Kurdish Yazidis from northern Iraq should have prevented the rejection of their asylum application,' it said. 'Germany recognised the Yazidi genocide and said we have a particular responsibility here as a result.' But German politicians, particularly in the CDU, say they feel a greater responsibility to their own voters. That leads to the second motivator for the migration pivot: an opinion poll which, this week saw the far-right Alternative for Germany ( AfD ) pull level with the CDU. [ Germany increases border checks: Alexander Dobrindt oversees radical policy shift Opens in new window ] A decade ago, as Germany faced a growing refugee crisis, chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a motivational 'we can do this' approach to the challenges of welcoming and integrating more than a million people annually. Last Friday, her CDU successor Friedrich Merz binned that legacy. 'Some 10 years on we know that, in the [integration] context she meant ... we clearly haven't managed it,' he told journalists in Berlin. German chancellor Friedrich Merz (right) and his interior minister Alexander Dobrindt. Photograph:As Merz spoke in the capital, his interior minister Alexander Dobrindt presided over a gathering of migration hardliners in his native Bavaria. To the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, Dobrindt invited counterparts from France, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark, as well as European Union home affairs commissioner Magnus Brunner. The informal gathering proposed greater use of drones at the EU's outer borders, ex-territorial 'return centres' for failed asylum seekers and the use of trade and development aid as leverage in negotiations over returns to third countries. 'We are all concerned that overburdening our countries through illegal migration is contributing massively to the polarisation of society and want to push back against this,' the ministers said in a concluding document. Despite its pivot, Germany has shied away from backing more radical migration proposals circulating in Europe. Last May, all of Dobrindt's Zugspitze guests backed a Danish-Italian demand for reform of the European Convention on Human Rights to 'match the challenge that we face today'. The paper warned that the convention, and the European court that oversees it, no longer reflect the realities of modern migration and, too often, results in 'the protection of the wrong people'. The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the paper, saying 'debate is healthy but politicising the court is not'. The Zugspitze document attempts a balance, vowing to 'preserve the judicial independence and guarantees of the European Human Rights Convention' while 'respecting the interests of the member states'. The Zugspitze gathering was an effort by Berlin to ease tensions with its immediate neighbours over its new border checks and refusal to accept asylum seekers from other EU states. Warsaw and other capitals are holding their tongues in public, anxious not to halt Dobrindt's momentum. His ministry organised a second deportation flight last week with 81 people aboard, this time to Kabul. To assist with this and future deportations, Berlin confirmed it had accredited two Afghan consular officials to work from Germany. It was a bold move given the previous refusal of Berlin, along with other western capitals, to recognise the Taliban-led regime. Opposition politicians have denounced the move as a 'de facto diplomatic recognition' of the Taliban regime that regained power in Afghanistan in 2021 but remains internationally isolated largely over its human rights record, particularly towards women and girls. While German migration analysts warn of a populist race to the bottom, Dobrindt's message to voters is clear: 'When ít comes to migration, Germany is no longer the brake but the locomotive.'
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Budapest's Most Historic Site Gets a Controversial Rebuild
Thanks to US President Donald Trump, historic revival architecture has returned to the news this year. In January, the president signed an executive order demanding that all new federal buildings respect 'traditional and classical architectural heritage' in their design — reflecting a wider right-wing trend associating revivalist architecture with conservative values. This push for new-old buildings is global: In Dresden, Germany, whole sections of the city's historic center have been rebuilt to resemble the city's pre-World War II self, a form of project being repeated across Germany, Russia and France. Often these initiatives are promoted both by mainstream right-wing parties such as Germany's CDU, and through culture war agitation from figures on the far right. Perhaps the most high-profile example of this phenomenon is underway in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, where the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is rebuilding the Buda Castle district, a complex of ornate 19th century palaces and buildings on a fortified hill commanding the heights above Budapest. The project, initially estimated at $590 million but likely to cost far more, has been billed as restoring the area to its prewar glory. But critics have pointed out that the revamp — referred to as the National Hauszmann Program — is anything but historically accurate.
India.com
3 days ago
- India.com
Germany: At Least 3 Dead, Several Injured In Train Derailment Near Riedlingen
At least three people have died and several others sustained injuries after a passenger train derailed in the southwestern region of Germany on Sunday (local time), DW News reported, citing local officials. According to DW News, the incident occurred near the town of Riedlingen in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, with approximately 100 passengers reportedly on board at the time. Emergency services, including firefighters, rescue teams, and police, responded swiftly to the scene. Baden-Wurttemberg's state interior minister, Thomas Strobl (CDU), was en route to the accident site, DW News reported, citing a spokesperson. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his shock over the incident and stated that he was in close contact with relevant authorities to expedite the rescue operations. He further offered his condolences to the relatives of the victims who died in the incident. "The train accident in the Biberach district shocks me. I am in close contact with the Interior Minister and the Transport Minister and have asked them to support the rescue forces with all available means. We mourn the victims. I express my condolences to their relatives," Merz stated in a post on X. As per DW News, the train was travelling through a rugged, forested region between Sigmaringen and Ulm. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the derailment. More details are awaited.
Russia Today
4 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Most Germans unhappy with Merz's leadership
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has suffered a major blow in terms of public support over the past month, with 56% of people disapproving of his work, a survey conducted by INSA institute shows. Less than a third of respondents said they are still satisfied with his leadership. In early June, the level of support for Merz stood at 36%, with 45% of Germans critical of his performance, according to the German tabloid Bild, which commissioned the poll. The governing coalition, which includes Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democrats, has also taken a beating, according to the poll. Almost 60% of Germans are not satisfied with the coalition's work, up from just 44% in early June, the data suggests. The two parties would no longer be able to form a majority government if elections were held this weekend, with the CDU getting 27% of the vote and the Social Democrats gaining 15%, according to INSA. Germany's most popular opposition party – the right-wing Alterative for Germany (AfD) – is polling just three percentage points behind the CDU, the poll suggested. Since taking office in May, Merz has adopted a hardline foreign policy stance towards Russia. Berlin – one of Kiev's largest backers – has pledged to provide €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to finance long-range weapons production in Ukraine. The chancellor also did not rule out providing long-range missiles capable of striking Moscow. Merz declared that diplomatic options in the Ukraine conflict were 'exhausted' earlier this month. The chancellor's statements prompted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to accuse him of choosing escalation instead of diplomacy. The federal government's spending priorities have sparked criticism at home. 'Nobody understands that anymore,' AfD co-chair Alice Weidel said this week, referring to Berlin's decision to funnel taxpayers' money into weapons for Kiev while leaving domestic needs being unmet.
LeMonde
4 days ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
In Germany, the LGBTQ+ flag is at the heart of a new culture war
The rainbow flag will not fly above the Bundestag on Saturday, July 26, during Berlin's Christopher Street Day (CSD), the annual parade in support of LGBTQ+ rights. This decision, which ends a practice that began in 2022, has sparked heated debate in Germany at a time when the far right is gaining ground and attacks against sexual minorities are increasing. The turning point came in mid-May. Just days after the new government took office, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, of the Christian Democrat (CDU) party, announced that she would ban the raising of the rainbow flag atop the Bundestag for CSD in the name of neutrality for public buildings and administration, considering it a "political demonstration." She explained that this symbol of diversity and the fight against discrimination would now only be displayed atop of the building one day a year: on May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia. Klöckner also banned the "Parliament's Queer Network," a group of LGBTQ+ staff, from participating in the CSD parade as a political group. Its members may attend only in a private capacity. In doing so, the Bundestag president broke with the approach of her predecessor, Social Democrat Bärbel Bas, who had herself participated in CSD in 2023 and 2024 and had the flag flown atop the building.
