Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's centre-right CDU/CSU opposition bloc, came under sharp criticism on Thursday over his comments about asylum seekers having their teeth redone by dentists in Germany.
Merz's comments came during an appearance on a talk show programme focusing on migration issues in Germany.
"People go crazy when they see that 300,000 asylum seekers have been rejected but do not leave the country, get full benefits, get full medical care," Merz said. "They sit at the dentist's and have their teeth redone, and the German citizens next door can't get an appointment."
Critics accused Merz of resorting to right-wing populism and trying to stir up an anti-migrant sentiments with his remarks about teeth. Criticism of Merz was particularly sharp from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens as well as the far-left Die Linke (The Left) party.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat, called Merz's remarks "pathetic populism on the backs of the weakest" and accused him fuelling a far-right backlash that will only strengthen the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
She also said his comments were factually wrong, as migrants are only entitled to receive health care " if they are acutely ill or in pain."
Green Party leader Ricarda Lang accused Merz of spreading misinformation and "stirring up hatred." She also called the remarks "unworthy of the leader of a mainstream party."
But fellow CDU/CSU politicians offered support for Merz and echoed his comments.
The CDU/CSU parliamentary group circulated a video clip from Merz's appearance - without the passage about the teeth - on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
"We have to talk about the pull factors that work here in Germany. We have massive factors that lead to over 30% of asylum seekers coming to Germany from all over Europe," Merz said.
Merz accused the coalition government of failing to act, calling their handling of migration "a disaster" for Germany.
"Friedrich Merz is right," CDU lawmaker Tino Sorge told the Rheinische Post newspaper. He said that hundreds of thousands of migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected remain in Germany and continue to use the health-care system for free.
"The fact that doctor's appointments are becoming scarcer in many places, also due to the burden of migrants, is a reality," Sorge said. "Numerous municipalities have been confirming this for months. This is also true for daycare and school places."
The incident is hardly the first time that Merz's comments on migration have landed him in hot water. He has staked out a more strident conservative position than his predecessor as head of the CDU/CSU bloc, former chancellor Angela Merkel.
At the beginning of the year, he referred derisively to schoolchildren with Turkish roots as "little pashas." More recently, he declared during a speech at a beer festival in rural Bavaria that "Kreuzberg is not Germany," referring to a trendy neighbourhood in Berlin historically populated by immigrants.
He has largely stuck to his comments, saying at a party convention in June that addressing problems in controversial ways is necessary and not the same as right-wing populism or "AfD-speak."
Merz did, however, apologize last year after he called Ukrainians refugees in Germany "social tourists" seeking to benefit from Germany's social welfare system.
The latest controversy over Merz's remarks comes amid renewed debate over migration policy in Germany, as well as in the run-up to key state elections in Bavaria and Hesse, which are due to be held October 8.
Manfred Weber, a deputy leader of the Bavarian CSU, told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that Merz's comments "address what people are talking about on the street."
"When I am on the road in the election campaign in Bavaria, these are the issues that interest and move people," Weber added. "That's why you have to address the issues."
German law restricts coverage of "dental prostheses" for asylum seekers to cases where it is medically necessary and urgent.
After 18 months in Germany, asylum-seekers are covered under German public health insurance - but that coverage only pays for 60% of the cost of dental bridges, crowns or dentures.
