Germans keep voting against migrants in various referendums in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but elected leaders in the state have consistently responded by vowing to bring migrants into their towns and cities anyway. In the latest case, an overwhelming 91.4 percent of Germans living in Grevesmühle voted in a referendum against a container village, but the mayor says that he will push to move in migrant tents despite the vote.
The vote, which was held on Sunday, now requires the town of 10,000 to ensure that no container villages are built on urban land, and renting or selling city-owned areas for this purpose is also prohibited. The city administration announced this result after all the votes were counted on Sunday evening and posted to the city’s website.
The referendum occurred after the city council in April offered two areas owned by the district to accommodate “refugees.” Residents organized a referendum to fight back against the proposal. The vote saw 46.5 percent of voters head to the polls, which passed the minimum requirement of 25 percent.
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Despite the commanding majority vote against migrants, Grevesmühlen Mayor Lars Prahler (independent) said that private land is not affected by the vote and the vote only applies to container accommodations. He says that the city can still continue to host migrants in permanent building structures, such as sports halls.
He also added that the city will explore the option of erecting tents for the migrants and that the referendum is only binding for two years.
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As Remix News has previously reported, other cities and towns in the same German state have consistently voted against migrant accommodations. For example, in the larger city of Greifswald, 65 percent of residents voted against a container village there. However, the Green party mayor, Stefan Fassbinder, rejected the results and said migrants would be coming anyway. He insisted the vote would not affect the local government’s pro-migration agenda, but would make the decision on where to house newcomers more challenging.
“In the near future, we will have to make even greater efforts to get into the debate, to enter into dialogue with the citizens, with the economy, with everyone else, so that immigration can be successful,” Fassbinder said after the vote. He added: “The refugees will come. The only question is where will they be housed.”
Housing has become a major issue in Germany and the rest of Europe, with unbridled mass immigration fueling a housing crisis and pricing out citizens.
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In a sign that Germany’s open-door immigration policy is increasingly being rejected by more and more voters, polling data from one of Germany’s largest states, Baden-Württemberg, shows that 68 percent of voters there believe the federal government’s migration policy is exacerbating the housing shortage.
The poll, from INSA and commissioned by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) parliamentary group in Baden-Württemberg, showed 68 percent believe the government’s policy is harming the housing market, while only 19 percent of people were convinced otherwise. Although INSA performed the polling for the AfD, it is considered one of the most respected polling firms in the country and performs polling directly for a variety of parties.
The poll has some surprising results, with 60 percent of Green voters saying they fear the influx of migrants will worsen the housing market. However, far higher numbers were recorded for other parties, including 72 percent of Social Democrat (SPD) voters, 74 percent of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) voters, and 82 percent of AfD voters.
