Hesse's Prime Minister Rhein calls for lessons from the migration debate

In an interview with "Bild am Sonntag", Hesse's Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) said: "We're back to a topic - and that is the cityscape." The debate initiated by Chancellor Friedrich Merz was “right,” said Rhein. "Yes, we have to discuss it and in the end we have to learn lessons from it."

The migration crisis has “of course not yet been solved,” said Rhein. "Of course we have a problem, for example with immigration into the social systems." There is also a problem with “crime committed by immigrants”.

In October 2025, Merz sparked a controversial debate with statements about what he saw as the problematic effects of migration on the “cityscape”. The Chancellor later said in a TV program that he "perhaps should have said earlier" what he specifically meant by that and would "do it differently today."

AFP/fr