Günter Krings, the CDU’s deputy chairman of the parliamentary group and the party’s spokesperson for women’s policy, has sharply criticized the commission established by Federal Minister of Family Affairs, Karin Prien, which is tasked with potentially reforming prostitution law.
Speaking to RTL and ntv on Monday regarding the ongoing debate about implementing the “Nordic Model”-a system that penalizes clients-Krings stated that he must speak “frankly and openly.” Referring to the government’s term, he remarked that he had never witnessed a commission composed so unilaterally.
Krings expressed particular dissatisfaction with the committee’s chair, accusing him of previously endorsing “very questionable research results” and now attempting to defend them. The commission is relying on an evaluation report from a criminological institution, and the head of this institution is also the committee chair. This study was based on surveys of approximately 2,000 officially registered sex workers and concluded, among other things, that a quarter of respondents held a university degree and 80 percent were health insured. “All of that is totally unrealistic,” Krings countered, arguing that the study merely depicted a small, relatively privileged subset of the community. He claimed that only about ten percent of sex workers are actually registered officially.
According to Krings, the commission is therefore presenting a severely distorted view of the reality on the ground. “Across all of Germany, we only have 50 sex workers formally employed under social security obligations,” he stated. He believes the commission is operating with unrealistic assumptions, a problem he directly links to its composition. Consequently, the Union parliamentary group had been “very disappointed and surprised” by the appointment of the panel in the first place.
