Federal Government has Underestimated Financial Strain of Mass Migration, States Say

The federal government has underestimated the financial pressure mass migration has put on authorities, German state officials have claimed.

Local authorities throughout Germany have lashed out at the Federal Government over its pro-mass migration policy, saying that ministers have vastly underestimated the serious financial strain that arrivals are having on individual states.

Germany is currently experiencing its worst mass migration crisis since 2016, with the combination of Ukrainian refugees and illegal border crossers reportedly pushing infrastructure in many states to its limits.

According to a report by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, state authorities are now demanding the government hand over more funds to help them deal with the migrant surge, with officials calling for a system of financial aid similar to what was in place during the 2016 migrant crisis to be implemented.

However, Olaf Scholz’s left-wing coalition has dismissed such calls, insisting that lump sums of just over $3 billion for each state should suffice for the purpose of dealing with migrant arrivals.

“The basic problem is that this federal government has said goodbye to the proven system of financing that applied until 2021,” Henrik Wüst, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia explained.

“This system did justice to the situation because it was based on the actual access numbers,” he said. “The calls for help from cities and communities are dismissed from Berlin.”

This surge of migrant arrivals is not only causing problems for state purse strings, however, with many small towns and villages falling into open revolt after authorities opened up migrant reception centres in their area.

Things are so bad that some in the country are worried that continued migrant arrivals will spark serious unrest in the country, with the head of Germany’s Federal Police Union, Heiko Teggatz, describing the crisis as putting the public at risk.

“No border protection, no upper limit, no money for the municipalities — this is a dangerous cocktail that is changing the mood in the country and offers international crime an El Dorado in Germany,” he said.

Meanwhile, populist Alternative for Germany has surged in the polls, recently overtaking the ruling Greens to become the third-most-popular party in the country.

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