In a joint declaration, the German Catholic and Evangelical Churches criticise the draft law by the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions (CDU/CSU) limiting the influx of migrants and refugees, on which the Bundestag is expected to decide on Friday, 31 January. The tightening of migration policy initiated by CDU leader Friedrich Merz, “according to current knowledge, would not have prevented any attacks”, the declaration released today reads. In particular, the investigations showed not only that the recent attacks in Magdeburg and Aschaffenburg were “obviously carried out by people suffering from mental illness”, but they also pointed to “a deficit in the exchange of information between authorities and a drastic lack of adequate care for mentally ill people”. The declaration is signed by Mgr Karl Jüsten and by Bishop Anne Gidion, the heads of the liaison offices between the Catholic and Evangelical Churches and the Federal Government in Berlin. The declaration highlights that the timing and tone of the draft law are “very strange”, and the debate risks “defaming all migrants living in Germany, fomenting prejudice and, in our opinion, this does not contribute to solving the issues that actually exist”. Moreover, the declaration recalls that, at the time of the parliamentary crisis of the Social Democratic-led government of resigning Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the parliamentary groups agreed not to proceed with any vote in which the votes of the extremist populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) would be decisive: “We fear that German democracy will be massively damaged if this political promise is broken”.