Berlin (dpa) – The flood of refugees reaching Germany is spiralling
out of control, senior politicians of Bavaria‘s Christian Social
Union (CSU) said, warning of “devastating consequences” in remarks
published in Friday‘s German press.

“We have lost control,” Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former interior
minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s broad coalition government
told the Passauer Neue Presse daily.

Friedrich‘s remarks were seen as a clear indication of a major rift
opening up on the issue between the Bavarian-based CSU and Merkel‘s
Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and were immediately rejected by
senior CDU politician Norbert Roettgen.

“I see the government‘s conduct and that of the chancellor as their
greatest achievement to date,” Roettgen, chair of the German
parliament‘s foreign policy committee, told national public
broadcaster ARD.

Pointing to the tens of thousands of refugees entering Western Europe
via the “Balkan Route” through Serbia and Hungary, Friedrich said the
decision to allow refugees to cross the border from Hungary into
Austria had been “a political error without parallel.”

It was impossible to tell how many might be Islamic State fighters or
Islamist sleeper agents, he said.

“I am in any case convinced that no other country would be so naive
as to expose itself to danger in this way,” Friedrich said.

He called for refugees to be registered and their credentials checked
even before they reached Europe‘s borders and warned that border
controls would soon have to be reintroduced in the Schengen
free-movement zone, which includes 26 EU countries.

“Even if the official statements still reject this, the German
government would do well to prepare itself for this situation,” said
Friedrich, who was federal interior minister from March 2011 to
December 2013.

The Passauer Neue Presse reported that German security had already
identified 29 proven fighters in the Syrian civil war among those
seeking asylum.

Roettgen responded that “Hans-Peter Friedrich is completely wrong on
this.”

As chair of the Bundstag‘s foreign policy committee, he called for a
shift in combating the causes of the crisis away from the need to act
domestically towards “the leeway in foreign policy that we have.”

Germany could not act in Syria and a partnership with Assad was out
of the question, but Germany could nevertheless act in the region,
Roettgen said.

“I call for a humanitarian buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian
border,” he said. While this could not halt the people seeking
safety, it could direct the flow.

Speaking to the Munich-based Muenchner Merkur, another CSU opponent
of mass immigration, Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder,
repeated an earlier call for stricter controls.

“The flood and its knock-on effects are increasing noticeably,” said
Soeder, who has in the past taken a strong line on maintaining German
values and the need for immigrants to integrate.

“Common sense tells us that there will be long-term consequences. If
there are more people immigrating this year than are being born here,
that will have an effect on society‘s cultural structure,” he said.

He warned that Merkel‘s decision to open the borders to Syrian
refugees in particular had been a short-term measure, “but this
exception threatens to become the rule.”

A clear majority of Germans backs the government‘s policy on
refugees, according to a poll published Friday by national public
broadcaster ZDF.

Two thirds – 66 per cent – saw as right the decision to allow
refugees to cross the Hungarian border and head for Germany through
Austria, against 29 per cent who were opposed.

A full 85 per cent predicted the move would encourage others to head
for Germany.