Morning opening: Influx Limitation Act
Jakub Krupa
The focus is back on Germany today, where the Bundestag will discuss the Influx Limitation Act, a draft law aimed at controlling migration better by tightening the rules in the existing laws on residence.
This is not a drill: unlike the vote on Wednesday, which was on a non-binding motion, this is an actual draft law.
Even if it is almost impossible for it to complete the legislative process before next month’s election, it sends a strong signal of intent and marks another milestone in German politics. And you can feel the tensions rising every day now.
On Thursday, former chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised CDU/CSU leader, and likely future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, for breaking the “firewall” and passing the motion on Wednesday with the help of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
Separately, Auschwitz survivors criticised the vote, which one of them, Albrecht Weinberg, saying directly: “What happened in the Bundestag on Wednesday reminded me of Germany in 1933 of how Hitler and the Nazi party managed to come to power through legitimate means.”
On Thursday night, a big group of protesters also showed up in front of the CDU/CSU headquarters to express their frustration.
For Merz, there is no easy way out. If he passes the draft law once again relying on the AfD votes, he will get more criticism in the final three weeks of the campaign. But if he suddenly fails to get a majority, he will appear weak and incapable of delivering on his promises.
Merz faces a perennial question of how to deal with the rise of the far right and whether more mainstream parties can make a dent in their electoral prospects by taking some of their language and ideas. But the fifth anniversary of Brexit today reminds us how it can end.
The debate on the proposal 20/12804 is scheduled to start 10:30am. We will bring you the latest.
There is also plenty of stories elsewhere in Europe, so it’s likely to be a lively one!
It’s Friday, 31 January 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.
Key events
Why mainstream parties lose to insurgent populists – study
Speaking about that dilemma of how mainstream parties could or should deal with the far-right, Eleni Courea has the details of a new research that could give CDU/CSU’s Friedrich Merz some food for thought.
Voters in western democracies are turning away from mainstream political parties and towards populists because they are losing faith in their ability to implement meaningful change, a major report based on surveys of 12,000 voters has found.
The popularity of traditional centre-left and centre-right parties across major democratic countries has plummeted from 73% in 2000 to 51% today, according to research by the Tony Blair Institute.
Researchers looked in depth at the views of samples of 2,000 voters polled in each of six big democracies – the UK, US, Australia, Germany, France and Canada – and found they were “remarkably similar”.
They concluded that voters were increasingly turning away from centre-left and centre-right parties not for ideological reasons, but because confidence in their competence and integrity have plummeted.
Berlin protest against CDU/CSU’s migration policy – in pictures
Morning opening: Influx Limitation Act
Jakub Krupa
The focus is back on Germany today, where the Bundestag will discuss the Influx Limitation Act, a draft law aimed at controlling migration better by tightening the rules in the existing laws on residence.
This is not a drill: unlike the vote on Wednesday, which was on a non-binding motion, this is an actual draft law.
Even if it is almost impossible for it to complete the legislative process before next month’s election, it sends a strong signal of intent and marks another milestone in German politics. And you can feel the tensions rising every day now.
On Thursday, former chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised CDU/CSU leader, and likely future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, for breaking the “firewall” and passing the motion on Wednesday with the help of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
Separately, Auschwitz survivors criticised the vote, which one of them, Albrecht Weinberg, saying directly: “What happened in the Bundestag on Wednesday reminded me of Germany in 1933 of how Hitler and the Nazi party managed to come to power through legitimate means.”
On Thursday night, a big group of protesters also showed up in front of the CDU/CSU headquarters to express their frustration.
For Merz, there is no easy way out. If he passes the draft law once again relying on the AfD votes, he will get more criticism in the final three weeks of the campaign. But if he suddenly fails to get a majority, he will appear weak and incapable of delivering on his promises.
Merz faces a perennial question of how to deal with the rise of the far right and whether more mainstream parties can make a dent in their electoral prospects by taking some of their language and ideas. But the fifth anniversary of Brexit today reminds us how it can end.
The debate on the proposal 20/12804 is scheduled to start 10:30am. We will bring you the latest.
There is also plenty of stories elsewhere in Europe, so it’s likely to be a lively one!
It’s Friday, 31 January 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.
