Bundestag election 2025: Merz: “Four percent are four percent too much for the FDP”

SPD and Greens have rejected a proposal from the FDP parliamentary group to include suggestions that failed on Friday to stop the family reunification in a bill to implement the European asylum system. But: “We are willing to take responsibility and find pragmatic solutions that are not only sustainable, but also legally resilient,” writes the SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich in a letter to FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr. The parliamentary managing director of the Green Group, Irene Mihalic, in turn, in the letter from Dürr, “does not recognize a serious offer of conversation”. FDP boss Christian Lindner beat in the Rheinische Post a temporary stop of the family reunification.

On Friday, a Union law had failed for a so-called “influx limitation law” in the Bundestag. CDU/CSU, AfD, FDP and BSW voted together for the bill. The Union, but above all at the FDP, there were many deviators. The joint coordination of the Union and FDP with the AfD, which was classified as a right -wing extremist case, had triggered violent protests and mass demonstrations.

Both Mützenich and Mihalic refer to the failed coordination on Friday and the deviators among the liberals. “We cannot avoid the impression that a political game should be played here,” said Mihalic. She accused Dürr to “pull off a show”. Instead, it is important “that the FDP clearly explains that in the future it will not accept majorities for its political initiatives that only come about with AfD votes”.

SPD parliamentary group leader Mützenich reacted as well. The FDP is invited to work on the implementation of the present drives into a common European asylum system (GEAS), the expansion of powers for security authorities and the reform of the Federal Police Act. The Union Law draft towards the so-called influx limitation law, on the other hand, “have legal problems and uncertainties” and is inherent in some places. “The Union’s draft law was rightly rejected by the Bundestag,” emphasizes Mützenich.