A coalition with FDP and Greens would not bring about any stricter security laws, Caffier feared in conversation with the editorial network Germany.
Caffier is the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
He cited as examples the asylum and foreigners’ policy as well as the data retention. The FDP is against video surveillance and data retention. The Greens would have to “reorient themselves,” he said.
As one of the state’s representatives in the Bundesrat, he has been the chairman of the Defence Committee since 2006. In addition, he has been leading the Bundesrat delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly since 2010. He is also a member of the German-Russian Friendship Group set up by the Bundesrat and the Russian Federation Council.
“It will not be easy,” he said. On Wednesday the Union, the FDP and the Greens met for the first time for exploratory talks. In 2012, Caffier caused controversy when he proposed that football fans might have to pass through “face scanners” at stadiums, comparing visitors’ biometric data to a database of known football rioters.
In 2014, Caffier joined other German interior ministers in launching a suit to ban the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD).
In an effort to respond to growing security fears among the public during the European migrant crisis in 2016, Caffier called for a partial ban on the burqa and niqab garments, arguing that the full body veil is a barrier to integration, encourages parallel societies and suggests women are inferior.
In the meantime, the chairman of the CDU in the Saxon parliament, Frank Kupfer, called for a rethinking of his party’s policies. The CDU has turned to the left in recent years, Kupfer told German radio. If one were to go back to the middle, it would be logical “to move a little to the right”.
Noting the bad performance of his party during the Bundestag election, the Chairman of the Group was responsible, above all, for the Federal Party. Although there is also a Saxon component, he believes the main reason for the electoral slide is the policy of the Federal Government, and especially the refugee policy.
Chancellor Angela Merkel “should at least follow up on her attitude,” the CDU politician said. “To always defend herself by saying ‘I have done it right’…That is not what the voter expects from her.”