In 2007, Roland Koch found clear words: “We have too many criminal foreigners,” said the then Prime Minister of Hesse. Koch made tougher punishments and faster deportations the core of his election campaign, which his CDU lost resoundingly. Despite support from Angela Merkel, Koch was embarrassed and isolated in the Union.
17 years later, Roland Koch’s slogan is the line of the traffic light government. The whole government? No. Olaf Scholz recently said in his government statement that serious criminals, dangerous people and terror glorifiers “should be deported – even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan”. But a small party populated by indomitable deniers of reality does not stop resisting the Chancellor.
Green Party leader Omid Nouripour and parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann warn against agreements with the Islamist Taliban, who should neither be recognized in practice through a repatriation agreement nor rewarded for taking back criminals. According to Nouripour, the Taliban would use the money to finance terrorist networks in Germany too.
But last year alone, the German government spent 261 million euros on “humanitarian aid, transitional structural aid and basic supplies” in Afghanistan. This did not go directly to the Taliban, but indirectly. Every cent that the Islamists do not spend on the well-being of their people, they can use to oppress them and to carry out international terrorism.
Germany should make continued payments dependent on the return of knife attackers, honor killers, hate preachers and the like, who are heroes for the Taliban. The East German prime ministers are rightly demanding that Scholz follow up on his words with action. The Greens should consider that if Koch had prevailed in 2007, there would be less crime and less xenophobia in Germany today.
And they should take their cue from Baden-Württemberg, which is governed by one of their own. Since 2018, a special task force for “Dangerous Foreigners” has been dealing with difficult cases there, which can often be persuaded to return “voluntarily”. Last year there were 2,099 deportations and 2,333 voluntary returnees from the state. It’s possible.