On 25 November, the Eßlinger Zeitung reported on the event at our Econvent. Here is the full article:
Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer was a guest at “Talk im Econvent”, where he answered questions from EZ editor Alexander Maier and the audience. In the discussion, Palmer defended the Global Compact for Migration.
He often ruffles feathers in his own party too, and doesn’t always think twice before giving his opinion. But he can always justify it. Boris Palmer convincingly showed in Esslingen that he is certainly no populist, but a straightforward person and politician. He was a guest at “Talk im Econvent”.
How formative a father like Helmut Palmer is for one’s life can be gauged from the fact that even today – 14 years after his death and in his son’s second term as Mayor of Tübingen – an evening with Boris Palmer initially revolves around his late father. Though in this case there was a second reason: EZ editor Alexander Maier, who led the conversation with the Tübingen mayor and Green politician, once conducted his very first interview, as a 14-year-old school newspaper editor, with Helmut Palmer. The memory of the colourful character from the Rems valley promptly created a relaxed atmosphere at the talk. The audience learned that as a teenager Boris Palmer travelled around the state with his father, acquiring not only a love of nature and the local orchard meadows but also sitting at the ticket desk at his events. He was the only politician who charged admission for campaign appearances: “That’s how entertaining he was.”
The same seems to apply to the son: the Econvent was full with 150 listeners, and a number of people queuing outside had to be sent home. “We could easily have sold 500 tickets,” revealed the manager of the conference venue, Thomas Puchan. Palmer himself was surprised that people had paid to hear him. In line with the “Talk im Econvent” concept, he may now decide which good cause the proceeds should go to.
For all the cheerful banter, however, things quickly turned to content. Which topic, which statement of his might be “popping up” in the media right now, Adi Maier wanted to know from his guest. “You never know which hare will be set running and which won’t,” Palmer said. That morning, he said, he had spoken out against Friedrich Merz’s statements on restricting the right to asylum. He had criticised the ruling of the European Court of Justice that refugees may not receive lower social benefits than locals. And he had come out in favour of the Global Compact for Migration. “Those are the topics since yesterday morning – is that enough?” Palmer asked.
The Global Compact for Migration came up several times during the evening, including from the audience. “I think the content of the Migration Compact is right, and I believe the world needs agreements. And it is in Germany’s interest,” Palmer summed up. At the same time, the compact has weaknesses, for example a one-sided, purely positive view of migration. One could very well have concerns about that. His conclusion: the federal government and the Bundestag should create clarity and set out in a protocol declaration how they intend to apply the document. That would also be an answer to the concern one listener expressed as follows: “Everyone signs and only Germany implements it.”
Palmer also takes a clear stance on asylum seekers who have committed offences: “These people must be placed under supervision, they must be given a clear stop signal” – and deported if possible. With such statements he shocks many of his party colleagues. It is one side of the “double lane change” he calls for; the other is that rejected asylum seekers should also be given the right to stay if they work.
Palmer is a thorough pragmatist, too, on the question of how to deal with EU countries that do not take in refugees. How would he deal with them, one of the (few) young listeners asked. Better not with moral arguments, the politician warned. Even if Germany considers itself morally in the right, it is dangerous to push through its own position using the “EU lever”. That promotes the disintegration of the European Union and is therefore “a suicide mission”. He also sees the current political situation in Italy as the result of a misguided EU policy that left the country alone with the influx of refugees.
The Green politician actually thinks it is positive that the CDU, with Spahn and Merz, is moving to the right again and thus “fulfilling its role”: by taking a centrist course, it had “simply left behind” a large part of the population further to the right and thus also boosted the AfD.
For all that, Boris Palmer has no doubt whatsoever that he is a true Green. For in his view his main concern and the most pressing issue for the future is clearly climate protection: “That’s why I went into politics.”