German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been called on to make specific proposals on migration ahead of a meeting next week between the federal government and the prime ministers of Germany’s 16 states.
“This is the last chance for the chancellor to show that he will really make proposals for effective control and order on the migration issue,” the Prime Minister of the industrial core state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, told journalists on Thursday. .
The conservative politician spoke just days after anti-migration parties made strong gains in Sunday’s European elections, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD). The three parties in Scholz’s center-left coalition performed poorly, winning less than a third of the votes together.
“We must put an end to irregular migration,” Wüst said in the capital Düsseldorf, calling for plans for asylum procedures outside the European Union to be accelerated.
Wüst said he expected expert reports resulting from an exchange between the federal and state governments to be presented at the June 20 ministerial conference. “We really need a position from the federal government on this issue,” he said.
While the federal government sets asylum policy, states and local authorities provide housing and services.
