"I was told that in many places, they no longer know how to solve problems. Social workers can barely keep up, there is not enough living space. They are unlikely to be able to provide housing and will soon stop doing so altogether," Habeck said in an interview with the German news agency, speaking about his recent meetings with mayors.
The minister also said that he was told that with the current numbers of arriving refugees, they will have to start being accommodated in gyms soon.
"And if PE classes are canceled, you can't expect all citizens to say ‘we'll get through this somehow.’ If we don't want right-wing populism to exploit this problem, then all democratic parties have a responsibility to help find a solution," Habeck said.
Exactly for this reason, Habeck's The Greens party, "even though it was morally difficult," advocates resolving the migration issue at the external borders of the European Union and accelerating deportations to third countries through new agreements with them, he said.
Last week, the German Interior Ministry announced a pause in the voluntary intake of migrants from Italy, whose Mediterranean island of Lampedusa became the epicenter of a migrant influx last week, due to "major challenges faced by Germany with regard to its reception and accommodation capacities."
In August, the German Office for Migration and Refugees said that the number of applications for refugee status in Germany had increased by 78.1% from January to July 2023 compared with the same period last year.