German Bundestag blocks Merz's immigration bill in narrow defeat
The Bundestag rejected the CDU/CSU bill on limiting immigration. The media noted that this was a painful defeat for Friedrich Merz, who aimed to gain the support of the conservative electorate before the elections with this bill.
On Friday, the Bundestag rejected the CDU/CSU bill concerning immigration restrictions. This marks a significant defeat for Friedrich Merz, the CDU/CSU candidate for the German chancellorship.
350 SPD and Greens members voted against the bill, while 338 deputies from the CDU, CSU, FDP, and AfD supported it. Five parliamentarians abstained from voting.
Controversies around the vote
Just before the vote, Katharina Droege of the Greens suggested returning the bill to the committee, a move the CDU/CSU and FDP dismissed as disingenuous. Thorsten Frey of the CDU criticized the proposal, arguing it demonstrated a lack of intent to address the issues. Similarly, Christian Duerr of the FDP asserted that the true objective was to obstruct any meaningful outcome.
Lack of agreement and election campaign in the background
Earlier, at the initiative of the FDP, the parties tried for over three hours to find a compromise, but no agreement was reached. The bill proposed limiting the ability of family members to join individuals with temporary protection and granting additional powers to the federal police in fighting illegal immigration.
Merz's pursuit of tightening immigration law aimed to gain the support of the conservative electorate before the elections. A knife attack by an Afghan in Aschaffenburg, where a two-year-old child and an intervening man were killed, served as a pretext. According to the authors, the bill was intended to increase security by tightening immigration regulations.
