Migration issue mined for votes
BERLIN — Germany’s anti-immigrant AfD party pushed Monday to make the huge influx of refugees into the country an election issue as it battles with flagging support, despite waning concern among Germans over the matter.
More than 1 million refugees entered Germany in 2015-16. Alternative for Germany leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel said in Berlin they think the wave of newcomers has led to increased crime, an overwhelmed educational system and an “Islamization of society.”
“The big number of migrants cannot be integrated in the long run,” Weidel said, calling for tougher asylum laws. She also advocated shutting down the Mediterranean Sea route from Libya to Europe that many refugees use and accused the Germany navy of participating in human trafficking by assisting migrant boats in distress.
The AfD’s support has dropped ahead of the Sept. 24 election to 7 percent in the most recent polls, half of what the party had at the height of the immigration crisis.
Support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc dropped during the influx and its aftermath, but has rebounded to about 39 percent. Merkel’s campaign speeches have focused more on the country’s growing economy and record low unemployment.
Like Merkel’s Christian Democrats, most other parties have not made migration a major issue of their election campaigns.
Germany, like several other European countries, has suffered extremist attacks, some of which were committed by asylum-seekers who came to the country in the 2015 wave.
The move by AfD leaders came as Pope Francis urged countries Monday to greatly improve their welcome to refugees and stop collective expulsions, saying migrants’ dignity and right to protection trumps national security concerns.
In the message, Francis demanded governments protect, promote and integrate migrants, saying Jesus’ message of love is rooted in welcoming the “rejected strangers of every age.”
Francis has made refugees a priority of his pontificate, making his first trip outside Rome in 2013 to the island of Lampedusa, ground zero in Europe’s migration crisis. He has repeatedly spoken out for migrants’ rights.