German
Bundestag, September 18, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/177, pp. 22293-22294.
Frau
President. Ladies and gentlemen.
In
Greece, migrants set fire to their tents and reception camps, churches were
laid waste. The goal of the arsonists was a permanent admission to Europe,
preferably in Germany.
The
Linke and the Greens support this goal today here in the Bundestag. All shall
come: Then you could remain – And the Federal government wishes to take in
thousands; that is the signal. That is a catastrophic signal. All shall come. So
set fire to your camps, then you could remain, might even continue on to
Germany. – The smuggler mafia rubs its hands, since its business is enlivened
by the Federal government; all of you here support the international traffickers,
extortionists and fraudsters. That must be clearly stated. The Greek government
protested against that in the summer of 2019.
The
example of Hungary is still visible to all: Initially, only a few thousand
camping at the Budapest train station. For them, Merkel opened the borders. The
pictures released a gigantic suction – to the last corner of the Orient and
Africa. Suddenly, millions of people are set in motion. In endless lines of
humanity, they break through all borders. Is that no lesson to you? Have you
learned nothing from the history?
You
make of Germany a settlement territory for any who wish to come, a kind of
public buffet at which any can serve himself. We will not allow that. We will
preserve Germany and its culture as the only spot on Earth – Listen up! – where
we Germans can feel at home.
Contrary
to your assertion, your policy is anything but humanitarian. You are cynical
because you send false signals. Innumerable people throughout the world will be uprooted.
They sell their land, their cattle, give thousands of dollars to the north
African smuggler mafia and allow themselves to shipped to Europe in leaking
boats.
For
all of you here, it is certainly not about the people. For you, it’s about the
pictures, ultimately about a populist self-presentation; that is the situation,
ladies and gentlemen. Berlin’s Interior Senator of the SPD, Green chief Göring-Eckardt,
Steffi Lemke (Greens): Delegation
chairman!
Armin
Laschet, who already sees himself as Merkel’s heir: You all fly with a big
media crowd to Greece to pose with little children. A couple of disconcerted
words for the camera and then back on the comfy planes.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP):
Where exactly were you falsely diverted?
And
all the leading media send these pictures into every living room; many of the
public media are right at the front of that. You heat up the mood yet further.
What an ultimately cheap dramatization! What an inhuman, public spectacle!
Steffi Lemke (Greens): What an
agitation!
Karamba Diaby (SPD): What a
character!
In
the end, you distort our once rational, well functioning state into a
left-green, feelings and mood democracy: Sentimental, defenseless, irrational
and incapable of solving all the urgent problems, just as we again see here
today, ladies and gentlemen. Therefore, almost every country in Europe rejects
Germany’s refugee policy. They reject it! Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic
abhor it; the Austrians and Danes turn away; the Italians, Spanish, French and
Dutch admit no more migrants. Germany is isolated!
On
the Greek island, not only a couple of tents are burning. The European idea is also
being burnt,
Steffi Lemke (Greens): As if you understood what
Europe is!
the
solidarity, the stability and the close cohesion of the nations of Europe. And
for that, you with your policy are to answer!
So why
does Germany stand so alone?
Filiz Polat (Greens): How much
speaking time does he still have?
How
is it your neighbors do not wish, at any price, to follow your ostensibly good
policy, your good example?
Vice-president Claudia Roth
(Greens): Herr Baumann, come to an end, please.
Because
they have no heart? No! Because they have more brains, ladies and gentlemen!
Steffi Lemke (Greens): All of which you must read! Not once can he speak freely!
[trans: tem]
