If refugees who wish to remain in Germany are sent back to Austria, then you have to expect riots ultimately.

Speaking after the Bavarian Cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said the state could consider emergency measures such as returning refugees to Austria if Berlin does not act.

The Bavarian government demanded to reject refugees directly at the German border, if the other EU states failed to meet their European commitments and to take over the incoming refugees.

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.”

Diplomatic sources said Merkel’s officials in Berlin have been testing out hypothetical scenarios of reforms that the British may seek, since there has been no clear signal from London of what they might entail.

The entire programme is to cost about €489m (£363m), he said, adding that while it seemed like a lot of money, “it will be money well spent, because the costs to us if integration fails will be a lot higher”.

Her critics’ biggest complaint is that Merkel – by broadcasting her stance worldwide with statements and selfies with refugees – has turned Germany into a magnet for ever-more refugees.

Bavaria is threatening to take unilateral action to turn back asylum seekers at the border in a direct challenge to Angela Merkel’s refugee policy. “They concluded that the United Kingdom and Germany should work even more closely together, and with other partners, on the situation in Syria, the threat from foreign fighters and on efforts to counter ISIL’s poisonous ideology”.

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.

ARD television has meanwhile stirred controversy for using a fake image of Merkel wearing an Islamic headscarf, criticizing her for the open-door policy for asylum seekers.

Seehofer said he had not seen Merkel’s interview.

“I find this growth in the number of people who are using violence, alarming”, De Maiziere said, adding that hate mail, insults and foul language were fuelling the violence. But he said: “It’s a capitulation to say we can not protect the borders”.