By Jack Phillips on Oct 11, 2015 with Comments 0
Bavaria threatened Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government with a court challenge to limit the number of refugees entering Germany, escalating conflict within her party bloc over her handling of the crisis.
Speaking at a news conference, Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer said “we need to restrict immigration in order to maintain the public’s solidarity with those in need of protection”.
The state government of Bavaria, where most asylum seekers are arriving after their journeys across the Aegean and through the Balkans, says it is planning “emergency measures” to slow the flow, including sending a few migrants back to neighboring Austria.
Merkel has so far emphasized that Germany will continue to bring in more refugees and migrants.
Under growing domestic pressure over her open-door policy on refugees, Germany’s Angela Merkel has come out swinging, insisting “we will manage” the crisis set to define her almost decade-old chancellorship.
The backing of the German chancellor will be crucial for Cameron as he attempts to sell those reforms to other European Union member states.
The Bavarian government has long complained it is being forced to accept a disproportionate number of people refugees because it is on the border with Austria.
“We are witnessing a massive increase in xenophobic attacks on asylum seekers”, Thomas de Maiziere said in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
The package of measures proposed by the Bavarian government also includes spending about € 489 million on a program called “Encouraging social cohesion and strengthening integration.”
Downing Street said the two leaders agreed that they wanted the United Kingdom to stay in Europe but Mr Cameron told Mrs Merkel that the reforms he wanted as the price for continued membership were still a few way from being secured.
It is unclear if Bavaria would have authority to alter border-policing activities.
“Germany’s absorption capacity has been exceeded,” AfD leader Frauke Petry said, pointing to the poll results.
Amid the historic migrant influx, she implored citizens to harness the bold can-do spirit of Germany’s reunification a quarter-century ago, and to remember that granting safe haven to persecuted people is a core European ideal. A recent survey suggested half of all Germans approve of the refugee policy, and 43 percent disagree.
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