Germany updates: Lawmakers curb refugee family reunification

Lars Klingbeil was re-elected as co-leader at the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) congress in Berlin, receiving 65% support, a significant decrease from the 85.6% he garnered in 2023.

A number of SPD members told DW that Klingbeil made mistakes during the election campaign, which contributed to Germany's oldest party achieving its worst-ever election result earlier this year. 

They say he has still not drawn the right conclusions and accuse him of being too power-hungry.

Klingbeil interpreted the poor result for him today as criticism of his Ukraine-friendly and Russia-critical course. 

That's not the real reason, say many SPD members. 

Was tonight an expression of frustration that needed to be vented once? Or will Germany's finance minister be busy dealing with a party whose full support he does not have for quite some time to come? 

The latter could weaken the Social Democrats' position as the Conservatives' junior partner in the German government.

German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider on Friday lamented the weak outcome of a 10-day climate conference in Bonn, Germany, designed to prepare participants for this November's UN World Climate Conference in Belem, Brazil.

Schneider said the result of 10 day event did not reflect the urgency of the global climate situation.

Some 5,000 delegates were in Bonn for talks that ended late Thursday. Schneider said he was disappointed to see that old problems, such as north/south animosity or fossil versus renewable fuel blockages, persist. 

"We can only come to grips with global warming if we work together. That's why we need to leave the old conflicts behind us," said the Social Democrat. Moreover, Schneider went on to urge all countries to improve their current plans for limiting global warming as outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

Schneider was no outlier with his assessment of the conference's meagre results. "I don't want to sugarcoat it," said UN Climate Chief Simon Stiell, "we still have a lot to do before we meet again in Belem."

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) chairman Lars Klingbeil was re-elected at the party congress in Berlin.

Klingbeil, who is Germany's vice chancellor and finance minister, received 64.9% of the votes in Friday's poll.

Labor Minister Bärbel Bas was elected co-chair with 95%, replacing Saskia Esken.

Germany's February parliamentary elections saw the SPD relegated to third place in what was its worst showing in many decades.

Austria understands what it means to be confronted by migration pressures, said Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker at a joint press conference with his German counterpart Friedrich Merz in Berlin.

He made this statement in response to a journalist's question about migrants being turned away at the Austrian border by German authorities.

Stocker said that Austria had been protecting its borders since 2015, and that Germany's policy was not casting a shadow over their mutual relations. Merz agreed with him.

"Austria knows from experience in 2015 and 2022 what it means to be confronted by migration pressures," Stocker said. Needing to protect borders within the European Union was not the aim, "but in this situation, it may be necessary," he added.

At the beginning of May, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt imposed stricter controls to limit irregular migration, instructing that asylum-seekers be turned away at Germany's borders.

Germany has taken steps to block Chinese AI startup DeepSeek from the Apple and Google app stores over data protection concerns.

Meike Kamp, commissioner for the city state of Berlin's data protection authority, confirmed that DeepSeek has been reported to both US tech firms as illegal content. The companies must now assess the case and decide whether to remove the app from the German market.

"DeepSeek has not been able to provide my agency with convincing evidence that German users' data is protected in China to a level equivalent to that in the European Union," Kamp said.

She added that "Chinese authorities have far-reaching access rights to personal data within the sphere of influence of Chinese companies."

The move follows a Reuters report this week alleging that DeepSeek is supporting China's military and intelligence operations.

DeepSeek made headlines in January with claims that its AI model could rival US systems such as ChatGPT, but at a much lower cost. The company has acknowledged that it stores personal data — including user prompts and uploaded files — on servers in China.

Vice chancellor, finance minister, co-leader of Germany's oldest party, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD): This week, Lars Klingbeil faces tough questions by his party as it kicks off its three-day party conference on Friday.

Read the full profile of German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil here.

 

A man accused of giving a Nazi salute during a party on the German island of Sylt in 2024 has accepted a penalty order from prosecutors and paid a fine.

The case relates to a party in Kampen during Pentecost 2024, where guests were filmed chanting "Germany for the Germans, foreigners out" to the song L'amour toujours by DJ Gigi D'Agostino.

In the video, the man is seen raising his arm in a Hitler salute and placing two fingers over his upper lip to mimic a mustache.

Prosecutors assessed the gesture as the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations. In April 2025, they issued a penalty order, which the accused accepted without contest, the spokesperson confirmed.

According to the public prosecutor's office in Flensburg, the man accepted the charge and paid €2,500 (around $2,900) in late April, a spokesperson told Der Spiegel.

Investigations against three other partygoers have been dropped.

Following the incident, similar far-right episodes were reported elsewhere in Germany. Some event organizers have since banned the song. L'amour toujours was removed from playlists at the Munich Oktoberfest last year.

German federal prosecutors have charged a teenager with aiding in the preparation of a suspected terrorist attack targeting a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last summer.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said the accused, a Syrian national, was in contact with an Austrian suspect who allegedly planned to carry out a bombing at the concert. 

The teenager in Germany is accused of translating a bomb-making manual from Arabic and connecting the Austrian man with a member of the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) abroad.

He also allegedly provided a template for an oath of allegiance to IS, which the Austrian suspect is believed to have used to declare his membership in the terrorist organization. 

The German Federal Prosecutor has filed charges before the state security senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal, which must now decide whether to open a trial.

Meanwhile, Austrian authorities continue to investigate the main suspect, who remains in pretrial detention.
Click here for more on this story.

Opportunity cards, migration agreements, a so-called "Consular Service Portal": All these measures combined are supposed to attract foreign skilled workers to Germany.

But why are so few actually coming?

Read the full story on why African skilled workers prefer not to come to Germany.

German prosecutors are investigating possible links to Russia after six Bundeswehr trucks were set on fire in Erfurt over the weekend.

The fire broke out Saturday evening at a workshop site where the military vehicles were parked. The blog "Besessen vom Krieg" ("Obsessed with War") published photos on Thursday showing the trucks before and after the blaze, as well as the same video clip. Earlier reports came from MDR and t-online.

"We are also investigating in that direction," a spokesperson for the Erfurt public prosecutor's office said, referring to a video that surfaced on a Russian Telegram channel. The footage appears to show the beginning of the attack. Authorities are trying to identify who may have uploaded the video.

The video includes a Russian-language message claiming a link to the war in Ukraine. It remains unclear whether the destroyed trucks were actually intended for Ukraine, as claimed in the video.

Two weeks ago, six Bundeswehr vehicles were burned in a similar attack in Soltau, Lower Saxony.

German politicians are fond of saying, "Work must be worth it." But ever more people who work full-time need state benefits. And the new minimum wage hike is seen as disappointing.

Read more about how an increasing number of Germans have become reliant on state aid despite having jobs.

Parliament has approved government plans to stop family members of refugees with subsidiary protection status from moving to Germany.

The controversial move will affect Syrian families in particular.

Read more about how the suspension of the visa suspension for the families of refugees will impact those living in Germany.

Germany is set to raise its minimum wage from €12.82 per hour to €14.60 by 2027, according to a plan announced Friday by the country's Minimum Wage Commission.

The increase will come in two stages. From the start of 2026, the legal minimum hourly wage will rise to €13.90. One year later, it will increase by a further €0.70.

The commission, which includes representatives from trade unions, employers, and an independent chair, reviews the rate every two years based on overall wage trends.

Germany first introduced a statutory minimum wage in 2015 under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel. Since its launch at €8.50 per hour, it has been adjusted 10 times.

Ahead of February's federal election, the Social Democratic Party — now a junior coalition partner — had campaigned to raise the minimum wage to €15.

Read the full story on Germany's minimum wage hike here.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter, Berlin Briefing.

The German Bundestag has approved a two-year suspension of family reunification visas for certain migrants, passing the measure by a wide margin on Friday.

The bill, introduced by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), applies to relatives of people living in Germany without recognized asylum status. It was adopted with 444 votes in favor and 135 against.

The far-right AfD had announced in advance that it would support the proposal from the conservative-Social Democrat coalition.

Germany's Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has defended the proposed suspension of family reunification for refugees with subsidiary protection status, just ahead of a Bundestag vote.

Speaking during Friday's parliamentary debate, Dobrindt — from Bavaria's conservative CSU party — said the measure would reduce immigration by 12,000 people annually and disrupt criminal networks and smugglers' business models.

Critics of the renewed suspension point to the constitutional protection of family life and warn of negative consequences for integration. Supporters of it, meanwhile, argue that many municipalities have reached their intake limits.

Also in the Bundestag today, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is pushing to ban public funding for NGOs that it claims act as political allies of other parties. 

They argue the move about protecting state neutrality — but critics see it as a crackdown on civil society and dissent.