Refugees from Ukraine as "social tourists"? Friedrich Merz obviously wanted to serve a resentment that existed in Germany. Despite his if-then apology: Merz has damaged the "bourgeois" image of his CDU.
Travel educates, they say. CDU leader Friedrich Merz was in Kyiv at the beginning of May to send an important signal. He was there before Chancellor Olaf Scholz made up his mind to go to Ukraine as well, and he found good, right words in the Kiev suburb of Irpin. In general, Merz and his CDU have also shown their stance in the face of the Russian war of annihilation against Ukraine.
However, what Merz now said on Bild-TV raises doubts as to whether short trips are sufficient to provide education. In all seriousness, he accused Ukrainian refugees of "social tourism" because they don't all stay in Germany permanently, but sometimes go back to Ukraine and then come back. He said they would "take advantage of the federal government's decision" not to treat Ukrainian refugees on the basis of the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act, but to give them normal social benefits.
These sentences are a joke. One reason for the federal government's decision was to spare the refugees from Ukraine a system of bureaucratic harassment that asylum seekers are exposed to. And without a permanent presence in the Federal Republic, Ukrainian refugees have no entitlement to benefits. It should also be noted here that the social welfare system is also causing dismay among refugees from Ukraine: Compared to the standards in their home country, the German administration seems extremely backward.
However, the confrontation with an analogue bureaucracy from the 20th century is not the reason why Ukrainian refugees go back to their homeland and then come back. The reason is homesickness - for the husband, the father, the brother, who cannot leave the country, who often fight to defend it. Unlike Syria or Afghanistan, for example, Ukraine is not governed by criminals, but criminals who attack them. As a result, returnees do not have to fear arrest, torture and murder - at least not in the areas that Russia has not conquered.
The escape from Ukraine is of course legitimate and understandable. Russia is spreading terror across the country, and unless Ukraine gets more anti-aircraft equipment quickly, the coming winter could be cold for many Ukrainians. And as always with waves of refugees, there are also many internally displaced persons in Ukraine - in August there were 4.5 million. Every refugee who finds shelter outside the country relieves Ukraine.
Anyone who visits the CDU website today will read the sentence "Stand with Ukraine". At the CDU party conference in Hanover, Merz said in German: "We are on the side of Ukraine!" A charter of basic values was also adopted there, which states that the CDU stands for a policy "that is civil, cosmopolitan and future-oriented in the best sense of the word".
It is not difficult, just impossible, to reconcile such statements with Merz's talk about the Ukrainian refugees. Apparently he understood that now. Merz wrote on Twitter that he regretted using the word "social tourism". If this choice of words "is felt to be hurtful, then I apologize in all forms". An if-then apology, also called non-apology.
Social tourism was the word of the year 2013, and an opposition leader should not use it lightly. One can only speculate about the motives. It is likely that Merz simply could not refrain from appealing to a resentment that exists, but has nothing to do with bourgeois politics. For whatever reason, some people here in Germany don't understand that refugees from Ukraine don't look like the expellees of 1945. As shocking as it may sound to some, it's possible to be a refugee even if you drive your own car came here.
There may be reasons to treat war refugees from Ukraine as badly as asylum seekers from other countries. Branding them as social parasites is the lowest political drawer. Of course, the Ukrainian refugees are a burden for Germany. Combined with the energy crisis, they even serve as scapegoats for some misanthropes. Does Merz want to talk to such people? And if he does this: what will become of the CDU?
