On a visit to Potsdam last week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz talked about how his government was toughening up its migration policy. The primary aim, he said, was to continue to combat what he called illegal immigration.
Then he added another sentence, which has since caused a furor: “But we still have this problem in the cityscape, of course, and that’s why the federal interior minister is facilitating and carrying out large-scale deportations.”
The offhand remark has been widely criticized as racist, with many saying the chancellor is echoing the rhetoric of the far-right, anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been on par with Merz’s conservative CDU in recent polls.
Critics from the opposition Greens and the Left Party, but also from Merz’s center-left coalition partners, the SPD, have accused the chancellor of fomenting prejudice and furthering societal division by suggesting that diverse urban populations should be targets for deportation, while — incorrectly — blaming them for high crime rates, harassment, and sexual assaults.
Merz has rejected the criticism, though he acknowledged on the sidelines of a summit on the Western Balkans in London on Wednesday that people with a migrant background were “an indispensable part of our labor market.”
He also claimed, however, that many people in Germany and across Europe were nonetheless “afraid to move around in public spaces” due to migrants “who do not have permanent residence status, do not work, and do not abide by our rules.”
Earlier this week, responding to a reporter at the head office of his conservative CDU party in Berlin, Merz seemed almost amused by the questions over whether he would retract his statement.
Thousands have marched in recent days to protest Merz’s commentsImage: Lilli Förter/dpa/picture alliance
“I don’t know whether you have children. If you do, and there are daughters among them, ask your daughters what I might have meant. I suspect you’ll get a pretty clear and unambiguous answer. There’s nothing I need to retract,” he said.
“There are a lot of people who say, see, and judge it this way,” Merz reiterated when pressed further. “Once again: Ask your children, ask your daughters, ask your friends and relatives. They will all confirm that this is a problem — once it gets dark, if not before.”
Merz’s comments have been met with several protests in recent days, with thousands of people joining groups like Together Against the Right marching through Berlin. A petition with the title “We are the Daughters,” first launched on Tuesday, had been signed by nearly 200,000 people as of Thursday morning. The petition’s preamble refutes Merz’s statements, saying, “We are the daughters, and we won’t allow ourselves to be manipulated by your racism, Mr. Merz! You don’t speak for us.” It also calls for more focus on violence against women.
Among well-known Germans to sign the petition were actor Marie Nasemann and environmental activist Luisa Neubauer, who called out “racism” on Instagram.
“There are approximately 40 million daughters in this country. We have a genuine interest in ensuring that our safety is taken seriously,” said Neubauer. “What we are not interested in is being misused as a pretext or justification for statements that were ultimately discriminatory, racist and deeply hurtful.”
Last week, a national survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey showed a mixed picture, with only a third of the 2,500 representative subjects saying Merz’s comment was xenophobic. Meanwhile, 59% said it was either definitely or probably not the case.
Germany is ‘a very safe country’
Does Germany really have a problem with rising crime? DW investigated this claim in September, and spoke with criminologist Susanne Karstedt, among others. She gave the example of the area around the train station in Frankfurt am Main, which has been a site of prostitution for many years.
German chancellor under fire for immigration comments
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
“That then attracts violence and drug crime,” said Karstedt, adding that there are isolated areas like this in Germany where the crime rate is very high. As in many other countries, there is more criminality in urban areas than in the German countryside.
Official statistics from the Federal Criminal Police Office for 2024 show that for every 100,000 German citizens, 1,878 adults and children over the age of 8 committed a crime. Among non-German residents, however, that figure was 5,091. The Criminal Police Office added that it is predominantly young male refugees who account for this higher proportion. Many of them have fled war zones and are traumatized, and they often find themselves isolated in Germany.
However, Karstedt stressed that Germany could be considered a “very safe country” overall. “Here, as in other Western European countries, the crime rate has dropped since the 1980s and 1990s.”
Criticism from both sides
The governing coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) has been drawn into the debate. On Wednesday, Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil of the SPD warned that politicians “have to be very careful what kind of discussion we initiate when we suddenly divide people into ‘us’ and ‘them,’ into people with a family history of migration and those without.”
Criticism has also come from Merz’s CDU party. “There are, of course, many places where the look and feel of a city is unsettling,” said Dennis Radtke, a senior party member. “But to imply that deportations would change that is simplistic, raises unrealistic expectations, and fails to reflect the complexity of the issue.”
Speaking on the German n-tv news program on Monday evening, Tim Klüssendorf, the general secretary of the SPD, said the chancellor was conflating things that should not be. He stressed that people must not be prohibited from addressing problems.
“When I think what this must feel like for people who have come here from elsewhere, whose parents came here, who aren’t white or who look different from Friedrich Merz […] it’s not a pleasant feeling,” said Klüssendorf. “I think we should avoid that.”
This article was originally written in German.
