Merz says Germany needs migrant workers, but defends “Stadtbild” comment

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has clarified that Germany needs immigration to maintain many fundamental industries such as medicine and care, but defended his controversial “Stadtbild” comments.

Merz faces questions from Arena audience

This week, ARD’s Arena programme brought together an audience of people “from every corner of the country” to pose questions directly to Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Alongside questions on the pension reform and Germany’s new military service law, many audience members pressed Merz on his controversial “Stadtbild” comment, which was widely considered to be racist. 

Merz made the comment during a visit to Brandenburg in mid-October, saying “But we still have this problem in the cityscape, and that is why the interior minister is working to carry out large-scale deportations.”

A backlash followed, in the German media, from fellow politicians and from organisations representing the 25 percent of people with a recent familial or personal migration background. In late November, when Merz was speaking at a presentation for the Talisman Prize for Social Cohesion in Berlin, audience members walked out in protest.

Germany just wants certain types of migrants, says Merz

Since the incident in mid-October, Merz has repeated that he feels his comments were misunderstood and has never issued an apology. In the ARD studio, multiple audience members pushed Merz to clarify his stance, particularly a medical student from North Rhine-Westphalia.

“I see that in the healthcare sector we are highly dependent on people who come from different countries who bring their commitment and skills here," the audience member began. "My question is, how do you see that in keeping with the comments that you make and what kind of an influence do you think your comments have on social cohesion?”

The Chancellor clarified that Germany needs immigration. “The entire medical sector, the care sector, and in many other areas,” he said. “Without those who come from other countries, these industries simply wouldn't work anymore.”

But Merz stopped short of an apology, pressed that his Stadtbild comment had been misunderstood, and that he wanted to emphasise the difference between the type of immigrant he was referring to when he made the comments. 

The audience member countered that “Integration has to happen, and that’s not going to happen on such a scale when such comments divide our society.”

Centrist politicians risk creating two-tier human rights, says CoE

Merz’s comments on the ARD programme come in the same week as the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Michael O’Flaherty accused “middle-of-the-road” politicians of pandering to the far-right on immigration policy.

O’Flaherty said centrist European politicians were drawing “lazy correlations” between migration and crime - a theme which recurred multiple times in Merz’s comments to the ARD audience about immigrants harassing people at swimming pools or train stations.

“For every inch yielded [to the far right], there’s going to be another inch demanded,” O’Flaherty said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. “The idea that we would create or foster the impression of a hierarchy of people, some more deserving than others, is a very, very worrying one indeed.”

O’Flaherty’s comments come as 27 of the 46 Council of Europe members have signed an unofficial statement which calls for adjustments to the European convention of human rights, which would limit the definition of “inhuman and degrading treatment”.