Making Amends On Asylum

"HISTORY TEACHES US: TODAY, IT'S AGAINST FOReigners; tomorrow, it's against the handicapped; and the day after, it's against those who think differently." Thus spoke Bjorn Engholm, leader of Germany's Social Democrats, at a special party congress in Bonn on right-wing violence. After months of painful argument over its long-standing defense of Germany's liberal immigration policy, the opposition SPD heeded Engholm's call and voted to move the party's position for political asylum closer to that of the ruling center- right coalition. The decision to push for a constitutional amendment to stem the influx of foreigners is based on the belief that reducing the number of asylum seekers will put a firebreak in the path of the xenophobic violence that has torn through the country this year. Moreover, the delegates reasoned, under their plan the truly persecuted would not be turned away.

The shift opens the way for a compromise with Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats, who still feel the SPD has not gone far enough to stanch the flow of refugees from the east, 500,000 of whom are expected this year alone.