Overview

• During a visit to Brandenburg, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said there is still a problem in the cityscape and tied it to migration while citing large-scale returns enabled by the interior ministry.
• Opposition politicians condemned the phrasing as racist and exclusionary, with Left Party leader Heidi Reichinnek calling it a deeply dehumanizing worldview and saying the rhetoric is deliberate, not a slip.
• SPD lawmaker Rasha Nasr warned the language throws fuel on an already heated migration debate, and commentators cautioned it risks strengthening far-right narratives.
• CDU leader Jens Spahn defended Merz, calling the outcry a sham debate and pointing to conditions at main stations in Duisburg, Hamburg and Frankfurt as evidence of urban neglect linked to irregular migration.
• Merz later said he made the statement as party chairman rather than as chancellor, and as of the weekend no apology had been reported while the dispute continued to escalate in public discourse.