Just less than two months after the knife attack that killed three people at a festival in Solingen, the German Parliament approved this Friday (18) the so-called “security package”, as the series of measures that restrict immigration, access to bladed weapons and aid to refugees in the country.
The package came into force shortly after when it was approved by the Federal Council, a body similar to an upper house of the German Legislature that brings together governors and state representatives. The Council, however, struck down the section of legislation that expanded police power to collect and store refugees’ biometric data. The other measures were approved.
The package, presented in August, caused controversy among Prime Minister Olaf Scholz’s coalition parties. Leading members of his SPD (Germany’s Social Democratic Party) spoke out against the measure, arguing that it “strengthens a racist and exclusionary narrative” by targeting refugees while addressing new measures to combat terrorism.
“Instead of focusing on combating political Islam, the government directly links the issue of security with the withdrawal of the rights of those seeking asylum,” SPD parliamentarians opposed to the package said in an open letter. “A policy that leaves these people on bread and water is a policy against human dignity and cannot be supported by social democrats.”
Among the measures approved this Friday, the most controversial is the one that withdraws financial aid to refugees who entered the European Union from another country. According to the bloc’s Dublin Agreement, refugees must have their asylum application assessed by the country where they first entered the EU — few people arrive in Germany first, as the main crossing is via the Mediterranean, but a considerable number immigrate to the country later.
In this case, the person seeking asylum must wait in the country they entered and, if they do not do so, they may be deported.
The perpetrator of the attack in Solingen fit this case. Issa al H., a Syrian refugee, entered the EU from Bulgaria in 2022 and requested asylum from the Bulgarian government. When he arrived in Germany, Berlin asked Sofia to welcome him back, as he had to wait for his asylum application to be completed in Bulgaria. As soon as the Bulgarian government agreed, the German authorities made an attempt to deport Al H. — but he was not found and remained free until he committed the attack.
Critics of the measure claim that removing the minimum subsistence allowance for these people will help push them into crime and harm integration. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had said the package “strengthens our country’s security” and that it “is the right response to the new level of threat after the brutal Solingen attack.” The law provides for exceptions when the cut affects children.
The security package also includes a law that prohibits the carrying of knives and other bladed weapons in a series of public spaces: festivals, shows, fairs, street markets, as well as train stations, bus stations and inside trains, buses and boats.
The new laws would also facilitate the deportation of immigrants by allowing the federal government and states to collect and share biometric data from refugees in order to assess whether they first entered the EU through Germany and would give the Federal Police the possibility of storing them for up to three days , biometric data without the permission of a judge. This measure was heavily criticized, since Germany is a country with strict privacy laws, and ended up being overturned by the Federal Council.
The package was approved in Parliament with 367 votes in favor — 48 less than Scholz’s coalition, formed by SPD, FDP (Liberal Democratic Party) and Greens, had. There were 281 votes against, 4 abstentions and 81 absences.
Uncertainty about the coalition’s own support for the measures led the government to prohibit parliamentarians from attending the official tribute to United States President Joe Biden, on his state visit to Berlin this Friday.
The CDU (Christian Democratic Union), the main opposition party, positioned itself against the package — but for the opposite reason. For the center-right party, which is ahead in electoral polls and should return to govern the country after the 2025 elections, the measures do not go far enough: the party’s president, Friedrich Merz, even asked that the country completely close the borders to refugees from countries like Syria and Afghanistan.
When the package was presented in August, immigration experts lamented the government’s bet on tougher measures of dubious effectiveness.
“The vast majority of refugees in Germany have legalized status — and almost 80% of those who receive an order to leave the country do so voluntarily, without the need for deportation,” said Herbert Brücke, a researcher at Humboldt University, to Zeit Online newspaper. “Germany wastes its good reputation as a country open to immigration with debates like these.”
