Wounded Merkel backtracks in migrant crisis
David Charter, Berlin
June 15 2018, 12:01am, The Times (of London)
Angela Merkel was forced yesterday to concede tougher controls on migrants but her retreat wasn’t enough to placate hardliners in her own camp, setting the stage for a showdown that could unravel the German coalition.
Horst Seehofer, the interior minister from Bavaria, is threatening to defy her by introducing border controls for asylum seekers next week. That would almost certainly lead to his being sacked and the government collapsing.
The rift with her coalition allies from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the main conservative party of Bavaria, is the worst Mrs Merkel has faced. The chancellor, 63, was forced to agree to push at an EU summit later this month for powers proposed by Mr Seehofer, head of the CSU, to reject some asylum seekers at the German border. Her concession was rejected, however, with some conservatives and German media warning that she could face a vote of confidence if agreement could not be found.
The CSU called for immediate action as they sensed wider support from backbenchers in Mrs Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The Bild newspaper yesterday published the result of its survey of 246 CDU MPs and, while many did not respond, only three backed Mrs Merkel’s position that it was wrong to turn away some asylum seekers at the border. “Since 2015 we are discussing this issue. At some point there needs to be a decision, if necessary with a vote of confidence,” said Axel Fischer, one of the CDU backbenchers.
Bild argued that MPs faced a clear choice: “Keep going with Merkel’s way or face an adventure called fresh elections.” The opposition Green party voiced “deep concern about a real government crisis” that put Germany “at a crossroads, to choose humanity, solidarity and the rule of law, or say goodbye to all these values”.
Mr Seehofer, 68, has demanded as part of a new “migration masterplan” that German border police be given the right to turn back all asylum seekers without identity papers, those who are already registered elsewhere in the EU and those who have previously been refused refugee status.
Mrs Merkel rejected the idea, fearing that it would be seen in the EU as Germany going it alone and that it would eventually hurt frontline Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece. She has pledged to seek a negotiated response by the EU, which holds its next summit on June 28-29, instead of Germany taking “unilateral steps at the expense of third parties”.
On Wednesday she called immigration “a litmus test for the future of Europe” and still hopes to push for her own vision of a common asylum policy where refugees are shared around EU countries and those refusing to take their share may contribute “in other ways” not yet specified.
The CSU was adamant that Germany “cannot wait for another EU summit”, with Markus Söder, its Bavarian state premier, declaring: “We must think about the local population, not just the rest of Europe.”
Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU parliamentary group leader, said Mr Seehofer had the authority to act without Mrs Merkel’s consent and order police to turn back the migrants. He said the CSU party leadership would meet on Monday to make a final decision.
Momentum in the EU is turning against Mrs Merkel, with Austria due to take over the six-month presidency and the right to steer the agenda on July 1. Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, told his parliament in Vienna yesterday that “the fight against illegal immigration” would be the priority of his EU role. “Security and stability in Europe cannot be taken for granted,” he said. “That means we need to have a clear focus on securing the external EU borders.”
Mr Kurz, whose conservative People’s Party is in coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, has called for the EU’s border force Frontex to be given more powers to reduce migrant arrivals. On Wednesday he said that the interior ministers in Vienna, Rome and Berlin had formed an “axis of the willing” to combat illegal immigration. The group is a direct challenge to Mrs Merkel’s approach to asylum and open borders in Europe.
A grim reminder of the dangers faced by migrants desperate to reach Europe was provided at a courtroom in Hungary yesterday: four men were jailed for 25 years each for their roles in the gruesome deaths of 71 people who suffocated in a sealed lorry that was abandoned on an Austrian highway in 2015. Ten other suspects were also found guilty over the deaths and given prison sentences of up to 12 years by the court in the southern town of Kecskemet. Three were tried in absentia.
David Charter, Berlin
June 15 2018, 12:01am, The Times (of London)
Angela Merkel was forced yesterday to concede tougher controls on migrants but her retreat wasn’t enough to placate hardliners in her own camp, setting the stage for a showdown that could unravel the German coalition.
Horst Seehofer, the interior minister from Bavaria, is threatening to defy her by introducing border controls for asylum seekers next week. That would almost certainly lead to his being sacked and the government collapsing.
The rift with her coalition allies from the Christian Social Union (CSU), the main conservative party of Bavaria, is the worst Mrs Merkel has faced. The chancellor, 63, was forced to agree to push at an EU summit later this month for powers proposed by Mr Seehofer, head of the CSU, to reject some asylum seekers at the German border. Her concession was rejected, however, with some conservatives and German media warning that she could face a vote of confidence if agreement could not be found.
The CSU called for immediate action as they sensed wider support from backbenchers in Mrs Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
The Bild newspaper yesterday published the result of its survey of 246 CDU MPs and, while many did not respond, only three backed Mrs Merkel’s position that it was wrong to turn away some asylum seekers at the border. “Since 2015 we are discussing this issue. At some point there needs to be a decision, if necessary with a vote of confidence,” said Axel Fischer, one of the CDU backbenchers.
Bild argued that MPs faced a clear choice: “Keep going with Merkel’s way or face an adventure called fresh elections.” The opposition Green party voiced “deep concern about a real government crisis” that put Germany “at a crossroads, to choose humanity, solidarity and the rule of law, or say goodbye to all these values”.
Mr Seehofer, 68, has demanded as part of a new “migration masterplan” that German border police be given the right to turn back all asylum seekers without identity papers, those who are already registered elsewhere in the EU and those who have previously been refused refugee status.
Mrs Merkel rejected the idea, fearing that it would be seen in the EU as Germany going it alone and that it would eventually hurt frontline Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece. She has pledged to seek a negotiated response by the EU, which holds its next summit on June 28-29, instead of Germany taking “unilateral steps at the expense of third parties”.
On Wednesday she called immigration “a litmus test for the future of Europe” and still hopes to push for her own vision of a common asylum policy where refugees are shared around EU countries and those refusing to take their share may contribute “in other ways” not yet specified.
The CSU was adamant that Germany “cannot wait for another EU summit”, with Markus Söder, its Bavarian state premier, declaring: “We must think about the local population, not just the rest of Europe.”
Alexander Dobrindt, the CSU parliamentary group leader, said Mr Seehofer had the authority to act without Mrs Merkel’s consent and order police to turn back the migrants. He said the CSU party leadership would meet on Monday to make a final decision.
Momentum in the EU is turning against Mrs Merkel, with Austria due to take over the six-month presidency and the right to steer the agenda on July 1. Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, told his parliament in Vienna yesterday that “the fight against illegal immigration” would be the priority of his EU role. “Security and stability in Europe cannot be taken for granted,” he said. “That means we need to have a clear focus on securing the external EU borders.”
Mr Kurz, whose conservative People’s Party is in coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, has called for the EU’s border force Frontex to be given more powers to reduce migrant arrivals. On Wednesday he said that the interior ministers in Vienna, Rome and Berlin had formed an “axis of the willing” to combat illegal immigration. The group is a direct challenge to Mrs Merkel’s approach to asylum and open borders in Europe.
A grim reminder of the dangers faced by migrants desperate to reach Europe was provided at a courtroom in Hungary yesterday: four men were jailed for 25 years each for their roles in the gruesome deaths of 71 people who suffocated in a sealed lorry that was abandoned on an Austrian highway in 2015. Ten other suspects were also found guilty over the deaths and given prison sentences of up to 12 years by the court in the southern town of Kecskemet. Three were tried in absentia.
