German Chancellor Angela Merkel accepted a two-week deadline to win agreement on tougher migration policy, a concession to her Bavarian coalition partner that eases an immediate standoff without removing the threat of further government tension down the road.
German Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer, who heads Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), insists the chancellor reach a deal by the end of this month with EU governments facilitating the return of migrants to those countries where they were first registered.
Merkel must now attempt to forge a deal by an EU summit on Thursday and Friday next week, and report back to her Christian Democratic Union on July 1.
Photo: AFP
“Whoever knows Europe, realizes this is no easy task,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin yesterday after a meeting of her Christian Democratic Union’s executive.
However, “the European project is at risk,” and “we have a particular responsibility,” she said.
Seehofer, who heads one of three parties in Merkel’s coalition, defied her with plans to order migrants turned away as soon as yesterday.
Photo: AFP
In accepting the compromise, Merkel looks to be having a last throw of the dice to avert unilateral action by Germany that she argues would risk a “domino effect,” collapsing the entire EU asylum process and unravel the bloc’s already frayed unity.
Seehofer’s party met in Munich to affirm its backing for his so-called migration masterplan comprising 63 measures, the most contentious of which is to start turning migrants away.
Merkel blocked the planned rollout last week, arguing that a bloc-wide solution was needed to what is a European problem.
She said yesterday that she supports 62 of his 63 points.
“We do not really have a handle on this whole issue of migration,” Seehofer told reporters in Munich as Merkel spoke in Berlin. “The party executive believes that rejecting people at the border is an indispensable part of the reorganization of the asylum system.”
While the deal would allow each side some relief, both indicated it could well be temporary.
Seehofer insisted on his right in the absence of a European deal to order police in Bavaria to start turning away migrants by next month if Merkel fails to find solutions with EU partners.
Merkel rejected the threat.
She said there would be no “automatic action” and issued a warning that she was in charge of implementing measures — a thinly veiled threat that she can sack him if he goes his own way.
Additional reporting by AFP
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