A rift has arisen at the top of the German government regarding Syria. After visiting a war-torn suburb of Damascus, Foreign Minister Johan Wadeful declared that Syrian refugees cannot return home safely. He said, “Hardly anyone can live with dignity here.”
On Monday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz retorted: “The civil war in Syria is over. There is no longer any reason for asylum in Germany, and so we can start repatriation” – a sharp comment delivered in his hometown of Husum, Wadefulk, on Germany’s North Sea coast.
The chancellor’s comments came as a public rebuke of his party colleague, while Merz tried to downplay it. He pointed out that Wadeful had visited a particularly devastated area of Damascus – suggesting that the foreign minister’s decision may have been clouded by emotion.
It took several days for the foreign minister to clarify his position: he still supports the deportation of Syrian criminals and supports voluntary return. But by then political developments had gained momentum.
At a parliamentary group meeting, Wadefull reportedly commented that Syria looked worse than post-war Germany. According to attendees, this comment isolated him within the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
afd factor
By that time, Wadefull was already facing increasing criticism from within conservative ranks. Among the first to speak was Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, which traditionally takes a more hardline stance on migration. Dobrindt saw no solid reason to oppose a return to Syria.
CDU state leaders in Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg immediately called for the early repatriation of Syrian refugees. The timing was telling: Elections are due next year in both states, and the CDU is feeling the heat from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is surging in the polls with its uncompromising stance on migration – and is currently ahead in Saxony-Anhalt. Wadful’s moral reservations found little sympathy among CDU politicians in these areas. Almost on cue, AfD leader Alice Weidel accused the CDU of “refusing to deport”.
Henning Hof of the German Council on Foreign Relations wrote to DW: “There is great unease within the CDU in the light of the current polling. Key parts of the party believe that the momentum can be reversed with ‘greater stringency’ in migration policy, and they are determined not to show weakness.”
At the same time, he warned that it is not only “inhumane” but also “unrealistic” to believe that “the nearly one million Syrian refugees, many of whom are well-integrated, can simply be ‘sent home.’ “The circumstances in Syria do not allow this.”
Legally, only a small portion of Syrians in Germany are eligible for deportation. According to the Federal Interior Ministry, 920 Syrians in Germany are currently required to leave the country and do not have a temporary residence permit, while another 9,780 are required to leave the country but have temporary residence permits as there have been no deportations to Syria in the last twelve years. There are currently about 950,000 Syrian immigrants living in Germany, most of whom came as refugees during the civil war ten years ago and have humanitarian protection status. Many are well integrated and even hold German citizenship.
Wadeful comments on Israel, Bundeswehr and ruffles feathers in China
Syria is not the only issue where Johan Wadfull has faced opposition from within his own party.
In August, he warned that deploying German troops to Ukraine would place an “extreme burden” on the Bundeswehr – a comment that risked undermining Chancellor Merz’s negotiating position as he prepared for high-level talks in Washington with US President Donald Trump.
Waddefull also criticized what he described as Germany’s “forced solidarity” with Israel, such as Chancellor Merz publicly defending Israel against genocide accusations. Joseph Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called the phrase “very problematic and unfortunate” in an interview with a German daily. World,
Henning Hoff said: “The Foreign Minister repeatedly speaks too casually and without proper consideration – even on topics that are not his responsibility, such as Germany’s role in the ‘Coalition of the Willing’, where he expressed concern about the excessive expansion of the Bundeswehr. Less is more.”
Wadful caused a diplomatic stir with China, one of Germany’s most important trading partners, by suddenly canceling a planned visit to Beijing. The decision was taken after it became clear that he had no meeting scheduled following a meeting with his counterpart Wang Yi. This move reportedly angered the Chinese government.
Familiar Fault Lines: Baerbock and Scholz
The opposition has quickly taken advantage of the CDU’s internal divisions. Green Party parliamentary leader Katharina Dröge quipped, “Even in foreign policy, the Chancellor and the CDU must now ask themselves why they have a foreign minister.” “Whenever the External Affairs Minister speaks, members of his own party raise questions on him.”
The coalition government between the center-right CDU/CSU and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has vowed to do better than the three-way coalition led by its unpopular predecessor, SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which it toppled a year ago.
Merz, in particular, pledged to end infighting – particularly over foreign policy. Under Scholz, there was often tension with the Green Party’s former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, as she sometimes appeared to dictate her own path in foreign affairs, independent of the Chancellery.
Now, the same problem seems to be surfacing again – this time within the CDU itself. Henning Hof said, “The promised ‘coherent foreign policy’ is not materializing.” “This is partly due to Wadful’s rhetoric, which has made him unpopular within his own party, but also due to the Chancellery’s lack of coordination and – at least in this case – its delayed response.”
This article was originally written in German.
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