Cabinet discusses migration policy in first meeting
A good five weeks after the state elections and just under a week after the new ministers were sworn in, the new Bavarian cabinet will hold its first meeting on Tuesday (10.00 a.m.). The focus will be on the topic of migration. Specifically, the introduction of a payment card for asylum seekers and compulsory language tests for schoolchildren will be discussed, as announced by Minister President Markus Söder.
At the end of October, the CSU and the Free Voters sealed their new alliance and re-elected Söder as Minister President; last week, all new ministers and state secretaries were named and sworn in to the state parliament.
For some, Tuesday is therefore the first cabinet meeting ever: for Minister for Europe Eric Beißwenger (CSU), Digital Minister Fabian Mehring (Free Voters), State Secretary for Finance Martin Schöffel (CSU) and State Secretary for Economic Affairs Tobias Gotthardt (Free Voters). Anna Stolz (Free Voters) has been promoted to Minister of Culture, while Judith Gerlach (CSU) is now Minister of Health instead of Digital Affairs.
According to Söder, Bavaria wants to introduce the payment card for asylum seekers "in cooperation with the federal states". "We now have several states that want to do this together with us," said Söder. According to Söder, "traditional regulations" are to be put on the back burner in order to speed things up. Otherwise, procurement regulations, for example, would mean that the desired timetables could never be met. "So you have to declare it a special matter so that it goes faster."
In the upcoming cabinet meeting, the topic of migration will be the primary focus, with the introduction of a payment card for asylum seekers and mandatory language tests for schoolchildren under discussion. Following the state elections, some ministers and state secretaries, such as Minister for Europe Eric Beißwenger and Digital Minister Fabian Mehring, will be attending their first cabinet meeting.
Source: www.dpa.com
