The head of the Christian Democratic Union conservative party Friedrich Merz officially apologized to Ukrainian refugees, whom he accused of "social tourism" in Germany.
On September 27, he published his apology on Twitter.
"There was a lot of criticism about what I stated yesterday about refugees from Ukraine. I regret using the words "social tourism". This was an inaccurate description of the problem observed in isolated cases. The only thing I noted was the lack of refugee registration. I am far from criticizing the refugees from Ukraine who face a difficult fate. If my choice of words is perceived as offensive, I apologize in all formalities," Friedrich Merz noted.
On September 26, on the air of the Bild channel, Mertz said: "Now we are observing the social tourism of these refugees: to Germany, back to Ukraine, to Germany, back to Ukraine."