CHANCELLOR Olaf Scholz has caved in to right-wing calls for tougher curbs on asylum-seekers and migrants entering Germany.

The Social Democrat Party leader, who heads a federal coalition with the Greens and the Free Democratic Party that is trailing badly in opinion polls to right-wing parties, agreed a new deal with 16 German state governors early today. 

The new measures include speeding up asylum procedures, benefit restrictions for asylum-seekers and more financial aid from the federal government for the states and local communities.

Mr Scholz described the agreement as a historic moment.

More than 250,000 people applied for asylum in Germany in the period from January to September compared with some 130,000 in the same period last year.

The number of new asylum applications was about 73 per cent higher at the end of September than in the same period last year, official statistics show.

The majority of asylum-seekers come from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. Germany has also taken in more than 1 million Ukrainians since the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Mr Scholz’s coalition is consistently trailing in third place behind main opposition party the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), led by Friedrich Merz, and the far-right Alternative for Germany.

The surge in right-wing support is fuelling a wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric  ahead of federal elections to be held in less than two years.

Prior to the agreement, Mr Scholz had already revealed his willingness to bow to the demands of the right for tougher asylum laws, saying “too many are coming.”

CDU state governor of Hesse Boris Rhein claimed that the new measures were going in the right direction, but “it is also clear that a path consists of many steps and that further steps must of course follow.”