The motion was brought, ahead of February 23rd elections, by the conservative opposition CDU-CSU and backed by, among others, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. That broke a long-standing taboo on cooperation with the anti-immigration party.
MPs passed it with 348 votes in favour and 345 against, with 10 abstentions.
The vote came days after a knife attack that killed two people, including a two-year-old child, with an Afghan man arrested at the scene.
The resolution lacks the force of law but calls on the government to launch permanent border controls and for the "rejection of all attempts to enter the country illegally without exception".
The 'five point plan' says this should include those seeking protection because in the neighbouring EU countries they arrive from, "they are already safe from persecution".
The motion also argues that people required to leave Germany "must be taken into custody immediately", adding that more detention centres should be built, including in empty army barracks.
It labelled the existing European regulations on migrants and asylum seekers as "clearly dysfunctional".
The motion also criticised the AfD, which it accused of "using the problems, worries and fears caused by mass illegal migration to stir up xenophobia and spread conspiracy theories".
READ ALSO: The CDU's immigration plan for Germany including citizenship reform
Despite this clause, the AfD voted in support of the resolution, along with the FDP, helping it to pass despite the strong opposition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats and the Greens.
AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel called it "a historic day for Germany, a victory for democracy" in a post on social media site X.
Senior lawmaker for Scholz's SPD, Rolf Muetzenich, after the vote said that Merz had "said goodbye to the political centre of this house today and we are outraged by that".
Scholz had urged the CDU not to accept support from "those who fight our democracy, who despise our united Europe, and who have been poisoning the climate in our country for years".
"This is a serious mistake - an unforgivable mistake," said Scholz.
Merz maintained that he was "not looking for any other majorities than those in the democratic centre of our parliament".
"If there has been such a majority here today, then I regret it," he said, urging the SPD and Greens to take part in talks on future immigration proposals.
A second motion put forward by the CDU/CSU, which included wide ranging measures including a proposal to allow for dual citizens to have their German nationality revoked in cases of serious criminal offences, did not receive a majority in the Bundestag.
READ ALSO: Germany's far-right 'firewall' under strain as migration debate flares
With reporting by Rachel Loxton
Comments