Merkel under pressure amid refugee crisis

Horst Seehofer of the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-based sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said he was prepared to take his case before the constitutional court in Karlsruhe if the chancellor failed to put a limit on the number of refugees entering Germany.

The Austrian government reacted angrily to the threat.

Bavaria’s move comes as German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere warned against an increase in violence against migrants, with 490 attacks on refugee shelters registered so far this year.

The announcement followed a meeting of his cabinet that produced an action plan of concrete measures for the reception and integration of newcomers to the largest and richest of Germany’s 16 federal states.

Republican United States presidential frontrunner Donald Trump branded Angela Merkel’s welcoming of migrants to Germany “insane” and said the policy will only spark riots in the country.

“Limiting migration is indispensable”, Seehofer said.

In recent weeks Mr Seehofer has emerged as the leading opponent to Mrs Merkel’s refugee policy, which he has called “a mistake we will be dealing with for a long time”.

The migrant crisis has deeply polarised Germany. German authorities are struggling to cope with the roughly 10,000 refugees arriving every day, many fleeing conflict in the Middle East. The government expects 800,000 or more people to arrive this year and media say it could be up to 1.5 million.

He also stressed that integration efforts would be successful “only if the scale of immigration was limited.”

“If I can’t get the things that Britain needs, then I don’t rule anything out in terms of the role that I would play because we do need these changes,” he said earlier this week.

EarActiv Germany reported that the marches, organized by the “Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident” group drew 9,000 participants, while Deutsche Welle added that a previous march last week gathered together another 7,500. Merkel has also pledged support from her party for the scandal-lade industry, which has been hurt by VW’s admission it had rigged United States diesel emissions tests and possibly also in Europe.

Merkel, the newspaper said, spoke “like a waterfall and lively like never before, which showed how critical the situation is”.