‘No plan, no legal basis’: Merz sparks backlash over desire to send Syrians home

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is facing criticism from his coalition partners after declaring that 80 percent of Syrian refugees living in Germany should leave by the end of his term in 2029.

Although it’s not the first time Merz has urged Syrians to return home to help rebuild their country following its long and brutal civil war that ended in 2024, his latest remarks have drawn a wider rebuke due to their specificity and the setting in which they were made — alongside Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Berlin.

“What remains [is] a figure with no plan, no legal basis — and no respect for so many people who are part of our society,” Social Democratic Party (SPD) lawmaker Aydan Özoğuz told POLITICO.

Members of the SPD, Merz’s center-left coalition partner, have grown frustrated with the chancellor’s tough migration policies, from doing deals with the Taliban regime allowing Berlin to deport migrants to Afghanistan to turning away asylum-seekers at Germany’s borders.

Merz’s pivot away from the inclusive approach of former conservative leader Angela Merkel — who welcomed 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers in 2015 and 2016 — had aimed to fend off the rise of the far right, with dubious success. His conservatives are polling neck-and-neck with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in national surveys.

After the latest bout of criticism, the chancellor sought to downplay his statement. The 80 percent figure, he explained, had previously been put forward by al-Sharaa, while Merz himself remained “aware of the scale of the task.” Al-Sharaa later denied that claim, however, telling an audience in London that, “I did not say this. It was said by others, by the chancellor.”

The SPD’s Hakan Demir, a lawmaker who focuses on migration, called the back-and-forth unserious. “[Merz] just throws things out there, and then he takes them back later,” he told POLITICO. “There’s a strategy behind it. He wants to stir things up and maybe also show the electorate that he’s the tough guy.”

By contrast, Merz’s far-right opponents slammed him as weak and unreliable.

“Less than 24 hours after announcing his plan to deport 80 percent of Syrians, Merz is already backtracking,” Alice Weidel, an AfD co-leader, posted on X. “A genuine deportation drive will only happen with the AfD.”

Demographic pressure

Economists have underscored the importance of the Syrian workforce for the German economy.

Around 60 percent of Syrians refugees who arrived in 2015 and 2016 are now employed, according to Germany’s labor agency. The employment rate among German nationals stands at 71 percent.

Nearly one in three employed Syrians works in sectors that struggle to fill open positions, including health care, according to the German Economic Institute (IW). Syrian professionals, meanwhile, constitute the largest group of foreign physicians, with 5,745 doctors and around 2,000 nurses, according to the German Hospital Association.

The Syrian newcomers average 27 years of age and are expected to help ease demographic pressure over the coming years as the Germany-born population ages. By 2029, some 5.1 million baby boomers are expected to retire, with only 2 million people joining the labor market, IW researcher Fabian Semsarha told POLITICO.

Hakan Demir, Member of the German Bundestag and the SPD, at a session of the Bundestag in June 2025. | Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

“Even though they did not come as economic migrants, the Syrian population has helped alleviate demographic pressure in Germany,” he said, adding that forcing them to go home now would make it harder to attract specialized foreign workers in future.

Merz’s spokesperson Stefan Kornelius on Wednesday tried to mitigate the chancellor’s earlier comments, saying the government was aiming to return those who didn’t work or weren’t well integrated.

But, he added, “it is clear that once the civil war ended, the time for return has come and the grounds for protection cease to apply.” He declined to provide specific numbers.

Approximately 1.23 million people of Syrian origin were registered in Germany at the end of 2024. Of those, 246,320 had acquired German citizenship, leaving close to a million Syrian nationals in Germany at risk of being affected by the proposed large-scale return policy.

‘Indignity and anger’

While the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic regime in late 2024 sparked jubilation among large segments of the Syrian diaspora across Europe, many remained cautious about the prospect of returning home.

In the first 10 months of 2025 just 6,502 Syrian nationals voluntarily left Germany, according to figures published by Süddeutsche Zeitung.

“The majority want to wait and see how the situation develops — both with the regime and the transitional government — before taking the decision to return,” said Antonios Hazim, who has been in Germany since 2016 and volunteers with a Syrian community organization.

“The continued sense of insecurity and recurring violence in different regions has somewhat dampened expectations,” added Hazim, aged 31, who is currently finishing his master’s degree at the Technical University in Berlin.

Hazim said he wouldn’t return to Syria as long as an Islamist regime is in charge, and expressed concern about the broader political climate in Germany and the rising support for anti-immigrant policies.

“Above all, I feel a sense of indignity and, at times, anger at what the chancellor appears to be proposing. Much of it strikes me as symbolic politics,” he said. “But there is also a great deal of uncertainty about what the next two or three years will bring.”