Germany’s highest court has struck down a €150 monthly payment for parents who care for their children at home rather than place them in daycare. The so-called “caring allowance” was a pet project of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), who said it allowed parents a fair choice between subsidised childcare or care in the home. But critics of the payment, in effect since August 2013 for children between one and three years, say it reinforces inequality. Read more [...]

Human rights organizations reacted angrily on Tuesday to the Bavarian government's new plan to set up asylum centers to detain and process people from Balkan states. The Bavarian cabinet, made up entirely of members of the Christian Social Union (the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union), decided on Monday that it would build two asylum seeker installations close to its borders exclusively for people from Balkan countries. The German government has put most of these Read more [...]