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FDP parliamentary group leader Dürr during the debate on the payment card in the Bundestag
Photo: Serhat Kocak / dpa
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr has called on the Greens to move forward in the dispute over payment cards for asylum seekers and refugees.
The planned nationwide introduction will bring more order to German migration policy, said Dürr.
From his point of view, there is no disagreement at all with the introduction of the payment card itself.
»At the request of all 16 federal states, we agreed to make a legal change in order to create legal certainty.
I expect all coalition partners to stick to their word, after all we all agree that we can no longer delay the switch from cash benefits to payment cards," said Dürr.
And: "It is a great success in migration policy that the federal government and all 16 states want to introduce a uniform system - we should get started on that now."
Meanwhile, Green Party leader Omid Nouripour promised a quick solution.
In the ARD “Morgenmagazin” he said that he believed that the dispute over a federal law would now be resolved quickly.
However, what a solution could actually look like remained unclear.
“It will come, it will come very soon,” Nouripour said fundamentally about the payment card.
“We are currently in the process of getting everything that is necessary in place.” If there are legal opinions that certain adjustments are necessary, “then we will of course look at it carefully together and get it started,” said Nouripour.
Next week on Wednesday, the Prime Ministers want to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for a new federal-state round on refugee policy.
The Greens recently said that federal regulations for payment cards were unnecessary.
The Greens pointed out that the introduction of the card has already begun in Hamburg and is imminent in Bavaria.
The SPD and FDP are in favor of federal regulation.
And various politicians from the federal states also pointed out the risk of lawsuits against the card if there is no regulation at the federal level.
On November 6th, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the state prime ministers agreed to introduce a payment card instead of cash payments.
The decision paper said at the time: "If legal adjustments are necessary in view of the specific design of the payment card, the federal government will initiate these as soon as possible." The card is intended, among other things, to prevent migrants from giving money to smugglers or family and friends Transfer abroad.
The Greens - unlike the SPD and FDP - take the position that there is no need for federal regulation of such a payment card.
Each federal state is free to introduce such a card and specify the details.