Pressure builds on Merkel to close borders as support slides

Furthermore, support for Dr Merkel, the conservative bloc’s main electoral asset, dropped 4 points to 44 per cent, the poll showed, if a theoretical presidential-style vote were to be held in Germany.

Forty-four members of the CDU-CSU’s combined 310-member bloc presented Merkel with a letter on Tuesday warning her that the country’s resources had been stretched to the limit by the influx of refugees.

In a repeat of scenes seen in several Dutch towns and villages in the past few months amid growing tensions over the arrival of record numbers of migrants, police intervened to disperse about 1,000 people who rallied in Heesch.

According to the same source, Germany’s move to threaten to stop its aid comes after the violence that shook the country in the last few months, especially on New Year’s Eve, where Moroccan refugees were allegedly involved in sexual attacks and robberies.

Mr. Dobrindt – who is a part of Mrs. Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) – demanded that any change to the policy must accept the inevitability of border closures and prepare for that eventuality. “We believe a change is urgently needed in the current migration policy … by a return to the strict application of the existing law”, states the letter.

One of the initiators of the letter told Reuters a total of about 100 conservative lawmakers backed it.

Dobrindt rejected Merkel’s argument that closing borders would jeopardize the European project.

She then heads to the Alps for mid-week talks with her rebellious Bavarian allies and ends the week hosting a summit with Turkish government leaders, in whose hands she has placed much of the responsibility for stemming the influx of migrants to Europe.

There are signs that Merkel, traditionally known for her pragmatic approach, is hearing at least some of the criticism but she has remained firm in resisting a cap. Merkel’s conservatives share power with the SPD in a “grand coalition”.

Conservatives fear Merkel’s attempts to persuade other European Union countries to take in quotas of refugees, push for reception centres to be built on Europe’s external borders and pay Turkey to keep refugees from entering the bloc are not working.

It will be the second time in two weeks that Merkel has addressed members, which have headed opposition to her stance on asylum seekers.

Merkel still enjoys higher ratings than most post-war German chancellors and with no clear successor in sight, it is still widely expected that Merkel will stand in the 2017 federal elections.

On Sunday, Bild, Germany’s most popular daily, asked on its first page whether Merkel is “still the right one”. Local authorities are struggling to find housing for the large number of refugees, Reuters reports.