Monday, October 9, 2017

Weekend German Political Chat

Over the weekend, Merkel's CDU Party and Seehofer's CSU Party have met and ironed out the way ahead for the two.  Merkel's team was forced to agree in some form to a limit in refugees per year of 200,000.  What is said by various news sources is that this will make the coalition idea with the FDP and Greens more difficult.  They aren't saying 'impossible' but major concessions by the Greens will be demanded to agree along with the 200,000 number.

The rest of the agreement?

Well....they talked over refugee centers in Germany.  There will be an understanding for the future that once you arrive in the country....you will remain in these "decision-making centers", until your application has been processed and determined.  Back in 2013 and early 2014....they could still make a decision in roughly six to twelve weeks (if your passport existed and was valid).  At some point in late 2015, the process was up to around nine months.  You could be sitting in this temporary center for a fairly long time.

If you fail?  I'm guessing that they would walk you from the "decision-making center" to the local airport and send you back.

They also brought up countries of origin.  Currently, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco are on the safe country list, so that means easy transfer back to the home-country....should you fail the visa process. I suspect that the Greens will not be that agreeable on this situation.

Border control?  They agreed that the current situation will continue on until the EU's external border system is working.  Don't expect this to occur for years.

On Family immigration?  They worded this in a way that if you are on a government subsidiary program.....you won't be able to bring family members in.  This forces the guy to get a job and show the ability to produce an income.

If you had to rank these agreements with the chance of a coalition with the Greens....I'd say there's some big issues to be ironed out and this coalition government might not occur. 

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