MERKEL’S MESS: Germany’s Leadership Hangs in the Balance Over Refugee Policy

The CSU, which faces regional elections in October, fears it could be toppled from its decades-old perch atop the wealthy southern state by the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party if it does not tighten policy towards migrants. More than 1.6 million migrants, mostly Muslims fleeing wars in the Middle East, have arrived in Germany since 2014.

Macron pledged to take back refugees registered in France who try to move to Germany, addressing a key issue for Merkel’s domestic critics. If that were to happen, Mayer says, Merkel would have the authority to fire Seehofer.

“Crime in Germany is up 10% plus (officials do not want to report these crimes) since migrants were accepted”, Trump tweeted, a day after he claimed German people were “turning against their leadership” over immigration.

“Emergency talks have, as yet, failed to soothe an increasingly bitter row, which is being replicated, albeit in perhaps rather calmer tones, in plenty of other European Union member states – between those who believe there is still a chance for Europe to rise unified to the migration challenge and the, largely populist, figures who are sick of waiting for it act”, adds the author.

Armin Laschet, a senior Christian Democrat, urged his party to end the dispute with the CSU quickly, saying it had strengthened extreme groups.

“My answer is this: the interior minister recently presented federal crime statistics and they speak for themselves”, Merkel said, describing “a slightly positive trend”. So Seehofer “graciously” gave her two more weeks, upon which Merkel stated that if her minister acted unilaterally, she would tell him where to get off. “But we stand by our position that, if this does not succeed, turning people back immediately at the border must be possible”.

Merkel is under heavy pressure at home to quickly strike deals with already heavily burdened European Union frontline states such as Italy and Greece – or risk a political crisis that could bring down her government. She said euro zone reform was the toughest issue in their talks.

As a warning to Seehofer, Meseberg’s statement on Tuesday emphasizes need to look for “common European solutions”.

Merkel’s comments on Monday followed a week of rising tensions within the CDU/CSU alliance after the interior minister first floated his “master plan”. However as I write this, on Monday evening, Seehofer has backed down.

Merkel has long insisted that migration is a Europe-wide problem that can be solved only through a Europe-wide agreement, and that adopting Seehofer’s position would spell the end to freedom of movement throughout the European Union, a cornerstone of membership in the bloc.

Next week, European Union leaders will also agree to look into opening “disembarkation platforms” in regions such as north Africa to decide asylum requests before people get to Europe.

The office said in an annual report that 728,470 application requests were made for worldwide protection in 2017, compared with nearly 1.3 million applications the previous year. Around 30 per cent came from conflict-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq.

“There needs to be a united European approach in terms of distribution and where people end up”, said Maddy Allen, who works as a Field Manager in Calais for charity Help Refugees. This was also down from 890,000 in 2015, at the peak of the migrant crisis. That figure fell previous year to less than 200,000.

Information for this article was contributed by Melissa Eddy of The New York Times and by staff members of The Associated Press.