- 14 Jun 2018 14:42
#14924428
The Guardian wrote:Angela Merkel is under intense pressure to tighten Germany’s refugee policies or risk the collapse of her coalition government.
A row with her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over whether refugees who arrive at Germany’s borders should be turned back escalated on Wednesday night as the two held talks for two and a half hours and concluded with no agreement.
The German chancellor is said to have urged Seehofer to wait until an EU meeting in two weeks’ time at which she would seek an agreement with other European leaders. But Seehofer is reported to have told her that as the EU had failed to forge a common policy since the refugee crisis erupted three summers ago, it was hardly credible to think it would succeed by the end of the month.
A Bundestag session was interrupted for two hours on Thursday morning so that Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU, to which Seehofer belongs, could hold separate emergency meetings. The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in the coalition, also withdrew for talks.
Tensions on the right wing of Merkel’s CDU have also been growing, and there are signs that support for her within the party has dwindled over the issue.
The SPD and opposition politicians have accused Seehofer, a former leader of Bavaria, where the majority of refugees have entered Germany, of putting the interests of his southern state before EU cohesion.
The CSU faces a state election in October in which it is desperate to stave off the challenge of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been eating away at its support. Party consensus is that it needs to appear firm on the issue of immigration.
Seehofer’s main demand is that asylum seekers should be turned back at the German border if it is established that they entered the EU in another country or if they have already applied for asylum in Germany and had their applications turned down.
Merkel has said it would be illegal for Germany to take such a unilateral step and it would damage attempts to shape a comprehensive EU migration policy. She is reported to have told Seehofer and Bavaria’s minister president, Markus Söder, she was prepared to compromise by striking bilateral agreements with the EU countries most affected by new arrivals, including Italy and Greece, but it is understood they turned that idea down.
Merkel and Seehofer have been increasingly at loggerheads over the refugee issue. Political observers say Merkel may rue the day she gave the nod to Seehofer’s appointment as interior minister. Seehofer promptly renamed himself Heimat, or homeland minister, a provocative move as the word was hijacked by the Nazi party to promote loyalty and the need to protect to the death of German values, and has not shaken off that connotation.
Having been weakened in the polls, Merkel had little choice but to award the ministerial to the CSU, but it is looking increasingly likely that the decision could bring about her downfall.
Seehofer’s decision to back out of attending an integration summit in Berlin on Wednesday only increased the tension. He went on to hold a meeting with Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, after which the two announced an “axis of the willing” between Austria, Germany and Italy to reduce illegal immigration.
The extraordinary move was seen as a deliberate shunning of Merkel and an outright rejection of her ideas on migration policy, particularly as she had reportedly not been informed about the announcement. It is also highly unusual for bilateral meetings to take place between government members of differing ranks, such as a leader and an interior minister, and the much-publicised episode contributed to making Merkel look increasingly isolated.
According to polls, 65% of Germans reject Merkel’s stance on migration and would like to see tighter controls at Germany’s borders.
The Guardian
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