German foreign minister and Green MP Annalena Baerbock has been criticised by her own coalition partners over her continued support for NGO migrant boats in the Mediterranean Sea.
Free Democratic Party (FDP) group leader in the German Parliament, Christian Dürr, told the newspaper Bild on October 20 that the foreign office under the Green MP should stop paying private organisations that pick up migrants.
“There was a clear announcement from the Bundestag that there would be no more taxpayers’ money for this. I expect that the will of parliament will be respected from now on,” the FDP politician warned.
Deputy FDP group leader Christoph Meyer agreed, dragging Baerbock’s colleague, Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck, into the mix.
“Robert Habeck as a designated candidate for chancellor must now clarify why his Green minister Baerbock acted against the coalition position,” he said.
According to the FDP, financing private activists was an emergency solution that was no longer required and state coast guards should now take over.
Ulrich Lechte, foreign policy spokesman for the FDP, labelled the Mediterranean Sea “the deadliest border in the world”.
The party argued that Baerbock “confuses the Federal Foreign Office with a private NGO” and would be better off focusing on her duties as the country’s top diplomat rather than talking to activists “who cause the anger of European partners”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), had already said the grants for the NGOs should be ended but Baerbock has refused to do so.
Christian Democrats, who are not in the Federal government, also opposed the funding, with MP Ingo Gädechens stating: “The illegal migrants who are no longer supposed to cross the German borders will first be brought across the Mediterranean with German taxpayers’ money! Politics can’t get any crazier than that.”
In a question to the Foreign Ministry about the grants, it emerged that Baerbock planned to hand out €1.9 million to the contested NGOs in 2024, of which €1.3 million has been paid out so far.
NGOs Sea Eye will receive €393,540, SOS Humanity €500,000 and SOS Mediterranee €492,060.
Supporting the NGOs has become increasingly controversial in Germany, with the anti-migration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) pushing the matter.
Christian Democrat MP Moritz Oppelt said in 2023 that the NGOs made themselves “at least compliant helpers of the criminal smuggling gangs” through their work.
The debate in Germany is happening as migration in the Central Mediterranean, where the NGOs are active, has significantly dropped.
In the first six months of 2024, the number of illegal border crossings was 64 per cent lower than in 2023.
Italian authorities have fined NGO Doctors Without Borders €3,330 and detained its ship, the Geo Barents, for 60 days after it brought 191 migrants to Italy. https://t.co/mdK0sqpihx
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 28, 2024
