German opposition leader pledges to deport more immigrants if elected
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Friedrich Merz says he will boost border controls if he wins power next month, as Afghan man arrested over killings. Germany’s opposition leader has pledged to strengthen border controls and step up deportations if he becomes chancellor after elections next month, a day after an Afghan man was arrested over a knife attack in which two people died.
Friedrich Merz, whose conservative CDU/CSU alliance is leading in polls, said he would not allow attacks like the one in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday to become a “normal affair”. The suspect in the attack, who was arrested shortly afterwards, is a 28-year-old Afghan man with a history of psychiatric problems and violence. The man’s asylum process had been closed at his request after two years, according to Bavarian authorities. He had said he would leave Germany of his own will last month, but had not done so, and had continued receiving psychiatric treatment.
Merz said that “all illegal immigrants” should be turned back at the border, including people seeking protection from war or political persecution, and that he was ready to issue a “de facto ban” on entry for all those without valid entry documents.
He called for an increase in the number of migrant detention centres, citing the suitability of empty warehouses, converted shipping containers or disused barracks. He added that people caught by police for criminal acts who had been asked to leave but had refused to do so “must be taken into custody … and deported as quickly as possible”.
