Anyone who thought the Seehofer-Merkel immigration battle was dissolved or lessened....was dead wrong.
So this morning....Focus (the German news magazine) brought up the next little issue.
The coalition partner to Merkel's 'team' is the SPD. They've come out now....complaining heavily about one part of the Seehofer plan to handle migration. The Finance Minister (Olaf Scholz) says that any attempt to seize cash from asylum seekers will be a problem.
The direct quote here is "In everything that serves only to humiliate people, we do not participate."
The suggestion here by Seehofer is that a number (yet to be openly discussed with facts) of asylum seekers are entering the country with cash. No one says how much, or if this is even worth making an issue.
Could you have one-percent of the asylum seekers walking in with 10,000 Euro in their backpack? Maybe. Could there be ten people a year walking into Germany with 100,000 Euro in their backpack? Maybe. But there are no facts to say this is a big deal or not.
All Seehofer is saying.....is that he wants the Border Patrol folks to review folks as they demand asylum, and if they have a substantial amount of cash....it'll be retrieved as a 'payment' for services.
The problem here is that Germans don't want to get some funny idea that 300 asylum seekers per year....have 20,000 Euro in their pocket and it's German tax money paying for shelter and food for the next two years.
As for this becoming some major SPD opposition issue? There's no doubt about this.
But if you were some migrant guy with 100,00 dollars on your person.....wouldn't you just go and find some place to bury the money, then walk across the border to ask for asylum, and wait a year to dig your money up after the 'coast was clear'? I mean, this wouldn't take much thinking to realize you are better off hiding the money than giving it to the German tax collector.
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