In its basic program, the CDU states that it wants to carry out asylum procedures in third countries. The president of Caritas sees the need to continue discussing.
Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa Photo: Frédéric Kern/imago
taz: Mrs Welskop-Deffaa, the CDU has decided that in the future it would like to process German asylum procedures abroad, in so-called safe third countries. At the party conference, foreign politician Norbert Röttgen spoke out against this massive tightening of the asylum law, but could not prevail. What will happen next with the asylum law and the Union?
Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa: In fact, I see that the discussion on this topic is not over. Here the Röttgen amendment was voted on again and there was also an amendment from the CDU employee wing that also went in the same direction. This shows that discussions are taking place in the large member associations.
But how should these debates continue now that the call to tighten asylum laws has been included in the basic programme?
A policy program is a general orientation. The next step is an electoral program. The laws are, of course, European standards, especially in the area of the right to asylum, and the debates on the Common European Asylum System showed how difficult it is to reach a European consensus. A government led by us will have to take the same approach.
Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa (born 1959) has been President of the German Caritas Association since November 2021. Since May 2013 she has been a member of the federal executive board of the German Christian Democratic Workers' Union.
And how great do you think are the legal possibilities for incorporating what has now been decided here in the basic program for the right of asylum into German and European law?
I see the obstacles extremely high. We have a Federal Constitutional Court that has formulated very clear rules for safe third countries. You can't just redefine it, so to speak, like in England. We have assumed international commitments whose fulfillment makes sense for us. Therefore, I do not believe that what was decided here in the basic program can be implemented individually.
Are you watching what's happening in Britain, where the government is about to organize the first deportation flight to Rwanda?
We are following this very closely at the Caritas Association and looking at what mechanisms are actually being used. I know that the CDU people are also watching closely. The elections in England did not give the impression that the Conservative government was being rewarded for what it was trying to do here.