January 26, 2016•Update: January 26, 2016
BERLIN
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative and social democrat coalition partners have lashed out at each other on Tuesday, due to growing divisions on refugee policy.
The southern state of Bavaria, which is ruled by Merkel’s junior coalition partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has sent a letter to the federal government on Tuesday and officially called for an end to the open-door policy for refugees.
CSU leader and Bavaria’s premier Horst Seehofer asked from the government to limit the number of refugees Germany receives to 200,000 annually. He also demanded stricter border controls until the EU member states reach an agreement to solve the crisis.
Seehofer warned that the Bavarian government will go to the Constitutional Court should the federal government not change its policy.
The Social Democrat Party (SPD) has sharply criticized the move by its coalition partner.
SPD parliamentary group leader Thomas Oppermann accused the CSU of undermining the cohesion of the federal government, and said the move almost amounted to an announcement of breaking from the coalition.
“In a coalition, one does not write threatening letters but solves problems,” he said.
“This makes finding a solution to the refugee crisis much more difficult,” he warned.
Oppermann criticized conservative lawmakers for attacking the government’s refugee policy with public statements, and said these have come to a point that has become unbearable.
Germany has taken a record 1.1 million refugees in 2015, and the refugee influx has strained municipalities and local authorities.
Fearing a similar wave in 2016, more than 40 Christian Democrat lawmakers sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel last week, and demanded alternative plans, including national measures to restrict the number of refugees that Germany takes in.
Chancellor Merkel has so far defended her open-door policy for asylum seekers who escaped conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and underlined that a solution to the refugee crisis can only be achieved by addressing the root causes of the problem, through cooperation between other EU members and Turkey.
But reluctance of several EU members to accept more refugees, and continued refugee influx have increased the pressure on Merkel, ahead of elections in three German states in March.
The surge in refugee numbers in Germany has been exploited by far-right and populist parties, and triggered anti-refugee sentiments, especially in the eastern states of the country.
