“What is actually going wrong?”
Merz sticks to the “Little Paschas” quote
01/13/2023 11:14 am
In the ZDF program “Lanz”, CDU leader Merz speaks of “little pashas” in connection with the sons of Arab migrants. Criticism of it leaves him cold. Rather, he “received unexpected approval” and sees himself as the initiator of a “necessary discussion.”
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has defended his Pascha statement made in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”. For his appearance he “received a completely unexpected approval for me”. He rejected the accusation of populism: It was a necessary discussion “that we talk about the question: What is actually going wrong in this country?” he said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. Teachers in schools often have the problem of being recognized by the students, who often come from immigrant families. According to Merz, these topics have to be discussed, because “what goes wrong in school can hardly be corrected afterwards in society”.
In the context of the riots on New Year’s Eve, Merz said on Tuesday evening at “Markus Lanz” about dealing with teachers: “And then they want to call these children to order and the result is that the fathers appear in the schools and that Forbid. Especially when it comes to teachers, that they correct their sons, the little pashas, sometimes.”
His statement had brought Merz the accusation of racism and prejudice against migrants. The Federal Government Commissioner for Integration, Reem Alabali-Radovan, said it was unfortunate that in Germany it was still not possible to have a debate like the one about the attacks on police and firefighters on New Year’s Eve without serving racial prejudice . The chairman of the elementary school association, Edgar Bohn, said that he could not confirm the quoted statement and the generalization and considered it to be “very exaggerated and inaccurate”.
According to March, the party wants to regain its economic policy competence at the closed conference of the CDU federal executive committee in Weimar, which begins on Friday evening. As he stressed in the morning magazine, the economy, energy and climate should no longer be viewed as separate issues. The CDU leader would like to bring his party “up to date” on technical issues.
The CDU has identified the Greens as the main opponent in the forthcoming elections this year. Merz does not want to counter the problems that Germany has to deal with with bans, but with incentives, research and development. The question of how we can and must live with climate change must also be addressed, the CDU leader continued.