Monday, March 30
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is receiving Syria’s interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa today in a visit that has caused closures and restriction on road traffic as well as demonstrations made up of several thousand people. Police have prepared for a large-scale operation with cordoned-off roads, extensive detours and strict assembly bans.
Several rallies, both for and against the Syrian head of state, have been registered. This morning, opponents of the government are meeting the Großer Stern and later at Brandenburger Tor. Supporters of al-Sharaa are meeting at Berlin Central Station, where 3,000 are expected to show up.
Police are fencing off areas for security purposes. As a resident, if you want to enter such areas, you must have an ID with you. According to the state leader of the police union, Stephan Weh, al-Sharaa is a person with a high-risk level. A situation like his visit “can’t even be mastered with one or two hundred operations”; it brings the capital police to its limit.
The Islamist militia HTS, led by al-Sharaa, overthrew the long-standing ruler Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024, following almost 14 years of civil war. Al-Sharaa was appointed interim president. Since then, Syria has been steering towards an opening and rapprochement with the West.
CDU’s foreign policy expert Jürgen Hardt emphasised that there are great opportunities for the German economy in the reconstruction of Syria. Hardt also claimed that it is in Germany’s interest that Syrian refugees quickly return to their home country.
However, the Left Party has sharply criticised the visit, calling it “not a diplomatic step, but a moral bankruptcy,” according to the foreign policy spokeswoman, Cansu Özdemir. “The federal government is courting a regime that was built on the rubble of networks close to al-Qaeda and whose ideology of oppression, violence and Islamist fanaticism survives to this day.”
The Greens also warned against “a hasty normalisation” of these relations. The party’s foreign policy expert Luise Amtsberg stated that “the military escalation in the northeast of the country and the recent massacres of minorities in other parts of the country clearly show that Syria is not safe.”
