An application by the AfD in the district of Bautzen to reduce benefits for rejected asylum seekers is currently causing a stir. The application is successful because the CDU supports it. The criticism of other games is sharp – there is even talk of a “dam bursting”.
There is a lot of excitement in the district of Bautzen after the CDU there approved an application by the AfD. With the application, the party wants to cut language courses and other integration services for asylum seekers who are required to leave the country and who have been rejected. 19 CDU members voted for it in the district council meeting on Monday evening, plus 28 votes from the AfD.
The application states that “in the future, foreign nationals who have no right of residence in Germany and are enforceably obliged to leave the country will be exempt from integration services,” says the application, which is available to the newspaper “Welt”.
The CDU district administrator Udo Witschas should therefore present the district council by March 2023 with a new version of the integration guidelines that have existed in the district since 2016. In the original guideline, people who are referred to as “immigrants” are guaranteed the opportunity for language courses and integration into the labor market. Witschas himself voted for the AfD application. Excluded are those whose identity has been clarified and who can prove that they have made intensive efforts to integrate.
According to the “Sächsische Zeitung”, Witschas stood behind the AfD parliamentary group before the vote because the application was “correct and expedient in substance and also my point of view”. People who would abuse the right of residence are not allowed to claim voluntary benefits. CDU parliamentary group leader Matthias Grahl defended the decision. He does not want to take part in “kindergarten games” and reject an application just because he comes from the AfD.
The other factions sharply criticize the CDU. The Green MP Jonas Loeschau speaks of a “dam burst”. Saxony’s Greens Chairwoman Marie Müser said that the CDU’s protective wall against right-wing extremists was “extremely permeable” in many places in Saxony.
