The German Green Party is a security risk to the country over its refusal to budge on proposed EU asylum reforms, the secretary general of its co-governing FDP party has claimed.
In an interview with the German Press Agency on Saturday, FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai called for an urgent rethink of Germany’s migration policy after the recent asylum crisis saturated state services and led to support for the liberal coalition plummeting in favor of the conservative opposition.
“We need a cross-party solution to the challenges in migration policy,” said Djir-Sarai as he urged his party’s fellow junior coalition partner to give up its “blockade” to the controversial EU asylum policy.
“Whether with reforms at the European level or with the classification of safe countries of origin, the Greens are a security risk for the country in migration policy and their unrealistic positions make consistent government action and cross-party solutions more difficult,” the FDP politician warned.
The German Green Party has expressed concerns over the establishment of fast-track centers at the EU’s external borders for migrants, which would facilitate quicker deportations should asylum applicants be refused, and has called for more lenient rules for families.
The party is at odds with many conservative parties across Europe that oppose the asylum reforms for other reasons, including Poland and Hungary, which voted against the plans that would see EU member states obliged to receive migrant quotas or be fined for non-compliance.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr echoed the sentiments of his party’s secretary general in remarks to the German newspaper Bild, lamenting the fact the federal coalition has so far been unable to reach a consensus on the proposal.
“The federal government must be able to speak with one voice in Brussels. The FDP and SPD agree, now the Greens have to let off the brakes. The asylum reforms must be passed before the European elections and Germany must not stand in the way of this,” he said.