Thousands of people have protested in Germany against plans to limit immigration. On Sunday, February 2, at least 160,000 demonstrators gathered in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, near the Bundestag (Parliament building). Berlin police reported that the protesters carried various posters and chanted slogans about immigration. This news was reported by the British news agency Reuters.
On Friday, Friedrich Merz, the conservative party’s chancellor candidate, introduced the immigration bill in the Bundestag (lower house of Parliament), but he failed to secure the required majority. Some members of his own party refused to support the bill, weakening his leadership. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) supported the draft bill, leading to widespread criticism of Merz. He is considered a potential candidate for the next chancellor in Germany’s upcoming national election. Meanwhile, the AfD is currently under surveillance by Germany’s security agencies.
The draft law aimed to restrict family reunification for some refugees and enforce stricter measures to send back more asylum seekers directly from the border.
However, a recent public opinion poll found that two-thirds of the population support stricter immigration policies.
Merz argued that the proposed law was necessary because suspects in several recent public murders came from immigrant backgrounds. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party rejected this claim, stating that the proposed law would not have prevented these attacks and would violate European law.