German politicians are speaking out against immigration and Islam as the country goes through a series of regional elections.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union (csu), will resist immigration “until the last bullet” in order to protect Germany’s welfare system, party chairman Horst Seehofer said March 9.

Opposition politicians are taking his remark very seriously. Seehofer has been reported to the police for inciting hatred by former Social Democratic Party (spd) official Ulrich Kaspari.

“I want to see if the speech constitutes the criminal offense of sedition,” he said. “In my opinion he crossed the line, which a democrat should not cross.”

Seehofer, his critics say, borrowed the phrase “defend until the last bullet” from the Nazis, who used it in the Battle of Stalingrad. Adolf Hitler himself used it during the defense of Berlin in 1945.

Seehofer also attacked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently told Turkish immigrants in Germany to integrate but not assimilate.

“A country that disregards the human rights of women as much as Turkey does, that on its own territory renders life difficult for Christians, from such a prime minister we do not need lessons about how to deal with religious minorities in our countries,” Seehofer said.

He also stated that all immigrants should “sign up to German values.”

During the same speech, Seehofer called for new laws that would force immigrants to learn German and better integrate into German society. Bavaria’s constitution must be changed, said Seehofer, “not only to assist with integration but also to demand it from immigrants.”

Such a change would require two thirds of the state parliament to support it, as well as a majority vote in a state-wide referendum. “There is little doubt the referendum would find broad backing in the conservative state,” wrote Spiegel Online.

However, Merkel’s coalition is considering changing immigration laws on a national level, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on March 10.

Immigrants would only be given a residency permit for one year, until they pass a German language test and complete an integration course, the paper said.

Currently immigrants from some countries, such as Turkey and Egypt, have to attend a course, but they don’t have to pass any tests in order to get residency.

On March 4, the new German interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, spoke out against Islam. “That Islam is part of Germany is a fact that cannot be proven by history,” he told journalists. The next day he expanded on his comments, saying, “Successful integration requires two things: knowledge of the social reality in Germany—where about 4 million Muslims live—and a clear awareness of the Western Christian origin of our culture.”

These remarks have reignited a storm of controversy about immigration in Germany—a storm that has been raging since last summer when German banker Thilo Sarrazin published a best-selling book claiming that Muslims and their failure to assimilate were the cause of many of the nation’s problems.

Opposition groups are accusing the likes of Friedrich and Seehofer of trying to drum up popular support for conservative parties during a year when Germany is holding several state elections.

Germany is going through a major transition right now. It used to be taboo for a German politician to speak out against minorities. But since Chancellor Merkel stated last October that multiculturalism “has failed totally,” that has changed.

Germany will soon confront its immigration problems for the first time since World War ii. Watch for a radical change in how Germany deals with radical Islam.