The rules of our "everyone against everyone" series for the federal election, the questions are very simple: each candidate may ask one question to each of the other candidates.
After the respondent’s answer, the questioner still has the opportunity to respond to it.
Today, markus tutsch (bundnis 90/die grunen) wants to know from emmi zeulner (CSU) how her party plans to combat the causes of flight that it has created itself.
Markus tutsch: the CSU in government signed trade agreements with developing countries that destroyed their economies through subsidized exports. As a result, their people face europe’s borders! How do you want to fight the causes of flight that you have created yourself??
Emmi zeulner: the CSU clearly stands for a fair shaping of globalization. And we must make a clear distinction between people who come to us because they are fleeing terror and war and those who come because they see no prospects in their home countries for economic reasons. I see the economic aspect in the foreground of this question.
The CSU has an outstanding campaigner against the causes of refugees in this election period in the person of development aid minister gerd muller. The ministry of economic cooperation and development’s budget has never been rougher. In 2016 alone, three billion euros were made available to reduce structural causes of flight, support refugees and stabilize host regions.
With this money, however, we do not want to push the developing countries further into dependency, but rather to strengthen their own responsibility and offer companies incentives to settle there. To combat the causes of flight, we must create structures on the ground. That’s why i support the marshal plan for africa by federal minister muller. The focus is on fair trade, more private investment, more bottom-up economic development, more entrepreneurial development and, above all, more jobs and employment. Young people in particular need jobs and prospects. We therefore see the development of economic structures and the creation of jobs as a central challenge in the fight against the causes of flight.
But these reforms must go hand in hand with reforms in europe and the world. Fair trade pays off, as does a stop to arms deliveries to crisis regions and the fight against illegal financial flows.
Markus tutsch: many good ideas and approaches – the only question is why they have not implemented them in a timely manner and are thus jointly responsible for the people on europe’s borders. The free trade postulated by them is exactly not reached by the closed trade contracts. And spending billions of taxpayer dollars on symptom relief is unlikely to stop a hopeless person whose livelihood has been destroyed by bad trade policies from going to the source of the cheap products that have destroyed his livelihood.
In part 25 of our series, oswald greim (die linke) asks thomas muller (odp) on monday if he would support much more commitment, especially in financial form, in the area of children’s and youth work.
Editor’s note: arguments and theses originate from the respective candidate and have not been editorially counter-researched or edited in any way.