Lemke explains Greens blockade
Why the payment card is not making progress
By Marko Schlichting
March 20, 2024, 4:51 a.m
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Environment Minister Steffi Lemke from the Greens accuses the Union of “political games” at Maischberger: the CDU and CSU want to discuss the payment card for asylum seekers in the Bundestag. A traffic light bill will then be voted on, which the Greens are currently blocking.
On Thursday, the Bundestag will debate the payment card for asylum seekers. At the beginning of March, the Federal Cabinet voted in favor of a corresponding legislative proposal from Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil in order to secure the reform with a federal law. The law should then go through the Bundestag as quickly as possible. But then the Greens stopped the legislative process. There is still a need for clarification.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke explains what her party is about during a discussion with CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt on the ARD talk show Maischberger. “Now technical details are being decided between the factions,” she says. You have to make sure that the payment card does not stigmatize people. “When you do something like that, you have to make sure you do it right,” said Lemke.
Alexander Dobrindt is angry. He does not accept Lemke’s concerns. “Excuses” is what he calls the reasons. “We will have to take many measures to reduce the number of people coming to us,” says Dobrindt. The payment card is just one element. The federal government provides the framework for this, the federal states have to and want to do it themselves. “I think the reason why the Greens are doing this is that they simply don’t want the number of refugees to go down.”
“This is gross nonsense”
The CSU politician continued: “The Greens always believe that there is nothing that needs to be achieved in this society now, that this issue places a much lower burden on this society than in the past.” This is not only the case with payment cards, but also with the third-country solution. There is an agreement between the federal and state governments on this, but nothing has been heard from the federal government yet. “I am in favor of us taking all measures to ultimately reduce the numbers, because otherwise we will overwhelm our society,” says Dobrindt.
Lemke defends the federal government. In the past few months, they have introduced a lot of measures to bring more order to the entire immigration and asylum system while preserving humanity. “We will have to limit immigration in various places. But in my view this must be combined with strengthening development aid and helping to give them life prospects in countries where people currently have no prospects for life.” This requires financial resources. Lemke says: “What bothers me about this debate is that there is always the idea that xenophobia is somehow something that could be used in election campaigns.” “That’s gross nonsense,” replies Dobrindt.
Now the Bundestag will deal with the payment card law on Thursday, at the request of the Union parties. “And with what the federal government has decided. Since you are not able to do so in the parliamentary groups: We will now pass it on to the German Bundestag. Then you can vote on your law – introduced by us. We will see. whether you have the strength or whether you don’t want to.” “These are political games,” says Lemke. “These are not political games. They are blocking it,” counters Dobrindt.
Dobrindt the “green eater”
In general, the two opponents give each other nothing during the entire discussion. Dobrindt in particular, whom journalist Kristina Dunz from the Editorial Network Germany describes as a “green eater” on the show, gives out a lot when the presenter lets him. In his opinion, the Greens are driving polarization in society. They also enforced ideological policies against the population, says the CSU politician. He cites the discussion about the abolition of agricultural diesel as an example. “And unfortunately there is no noticeable learning effect among the Greens,” says Dobrindt.
Lemke demands that every party would be well advised to look at its own front door when it comes to the question of what it contributes to the social climate, and that every party should self-critically question whether it has done everything right. But then she comes to the realization: “I would deny that for my party, we definitely didn’t do everything right.” The heating law, for example, was a mistake, but the traffic light coalition then improved it. Dobrindt criticizes that the law is still wrong.
At the end of the conversation, the moderator wants to know what a black-green coalition would look like if the results of the next federal election made this possible. “Democratic parties are capable of forming coalitions with each other, I also say that to Mr. Dobrindt,” Lemke is convinced. But Dobrindt sees it completely differently: “Germany needs a policy change. And I can’t imagine a policy change with the Greens.”