A tentative agreement on migration and asylum policy struck by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other leading politicians overnight met mixed reviews on Tuesday, writes German news agency DPA.
Members of Scholz’s centre-left coalition government hailed the deal as a major turning point, while conservatives largely described the deal as a small step in the right direction.
Some on the left however described the planned cuts as inhumane.
The deal would limit social benefits for migrants, especially those paid in cash, and shift how the care of refugees is financed in hopes of relieving overburdened municipal budgets. The processing of asylum applications is also to be sped up.
The talks, hosted by Scholz in Berlin, stretched into the early hours of the morning on Tuesday.
There was also general agreement that Germany should press the European Union to consider having migrants file asylum applications from third countries outside the bloc.
Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, a Green, said the deal laid “important foundations for taking action and solving specific problems in the face of the major challenges of migration.”
The Green’s left-leaning youth organization, however, denounced the deal as “wrong and revealing.”
“The planned tightening of asylum laws is a disaster and is in line with the shift to the right in migration policy,” Katharina Stolla, the co-leader of the Green youth organization, told dpa.
