By
our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Berlin (dpa) – The leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s sister
party has made a U-turn from his pledge to cooperate on managing the
country‘s refugee crisis.
Horst Seehofer, premier of the south-eastern border state of Bavaria
and head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), showed solidarity with
Merkel at a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party congress a day
earlier, pledging to work together in managing the thousands of
refugees streaming across German borders.
But Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Wednesday that
Seehofer‘s CSU government has asked a former Constitutional Court
judge to examine whether Berlin‘s migration policies have
constitutionally violated Bavaria‘s sovereignty.
Former judge Udo di Fabio told the Tagesspiegel daily that he is
expected to prepare an “open and unbiased” expert opinion, something
that often leads to formal court complaints.
Bavaria is the main German entry point for migrants, and Seehofer had
previously threatened self-defence measures if the federal government
did not take steps to limit the influx at the state‘s border with
Austria.
Approximately 3,000 people were waiting at three border crossings in
Lower Bavaria early Wednesday, with the majority refugees fleeing war
and persecution in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
Merkel and Seehofer had at the weekend outlined a deal that would
create transit zones where asylum seekers could be held outside
Germany while their application was processed – a long-standing
demand of the Bavarian premier.
In a speech late Wednesday in Dusseldorf, Merkel said that the
so-called Dublin Regulation, a European Union law that guides which
EU member country is responsible for an asylum seeker‘s application
for refugee status, is badly in need of reform amid the current flood
of migrants.
The Dublin Regulation “has such weaknesses that we must revise it in
any case,” she said.
Merkel said that legal routes were needed for refugees to travel
between Turkey and Greece, where many of the current asylum seekers
are entering the European Union with the help of criminal people
smugglers. The burdens of such a system must be shared both
financially and in terms of refugees accepted, she said.
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