The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) demanded major pro-immigration commitments as a precondition for joining a coalition with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
The topic of immigration has grown in prominence in Germany since the arrival of a large influx of immigrants in 2015, buoying the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party, which won second place during national elections last month with 20.8% of the vote. The victorious CDU, with 28.6% of the vote, ran on a platform favoring stricter migration controls, a stance popular with the majority of Germans.
The pro-immigration SPD, meanwhile, received its worst electoral showing since the 19th century, with just 16.4% of the vote. They received a lower percentage of the vote than the infamous 1933 German federal election, when the Nazis launched a national campaign of terror to intimidate and suppress the SPD vote.
No single party won a majority of the vote, so parties have since been in negotiations for a governing coalition. The only two viable coalitions are one between the CDU and AfD or CDU and SPD.
Despite the apparent unpopularity of the SPD’s position on immigration, they revealed a series of radical pro-immigration reforms as a precondition for a coalition government, the German outlet Welt reported.
Among these demands was the introduction of a federal skilled workers program for 500,000 migrants annually, “to manage demographic change and meet the demand for skilled labor.” They also demanded that those in Germany illegally be given a pathway to citizenship.
“We want to advocate for ensuring that even people who are legally required to leave Germany under certain conditions receive a real prospect in Germany. The ‘involuntary departure’ from German territory is often neither feasible nor sensible, as practice shows,” the demand read.
The SPD called for illegal immigrants within Germany to be granted voting rights after a certain amount of time in the country, and for those who have stayed in the country for 25 years or longer to automatically receive German citizenship.
They also demanded that deportations be largely ruled out, and only used as “an absolute last resort in clearly defined cases.”
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An acceptance of the conditions would be a major about-face for CDU leader Friedrich Merz, who repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail to tighten Germany’s migration and asylum laws, going so far as to pledge to do as much even if it was in violation of German and European Union asylum laws. He also denounced violence committed by migrants.
Despite the similarities with the anti-immigration AfD, the CDU has joined all other major parties in ruling out any government with the AfD, disregarding their large share of the vote.
