Merkel ally blasts German open-door policy for refugees

BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner has demanded an end to the open-door policy for refugees and threatened to go to the Constitutional Court if policy was not changed.

Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer said Thursday that significant disagreements among coalition partners of the federal government remained over the refugee policy.

“Yes, we are absolutely in a serious situation,” Seehofer told reporters in the southeastern town of Wildbad Kreuth, at the end of a party meeting with lawmakers.

“The fact that we have significant differences on such a historically important topic inevitably has implications on the entire work of the federal government,” he said.

The CSU is junior coalition partner in Merkel’s federal government and it is the ruling party in the southern state of Bavaria.

Germany received a record 1.1 million refugees last year, the majority of them arriving through Bavaria.

Seehofer said the continued refugee influx was unbearable and should be stopped through national measures, including imposing an limit to the number of refugees Germany will take in this year.

“We will continue to strongly demand, both politically and also legally, imposing such a limit,” he said.

Seehofer told reporters that his Bavarian government will submit its political demands on refugee policy, in a letter to the federal government on Tuesday.

“If the federal government will not respond, or respond in an inadequate way, then we will take legal actions,” he warned.

The CSU argued that the federal government’s open door policy was undermining the ability of Germany’s states to operate independently and was a violation of the constitution.

However, Chancellor Merkel defended her policy on Wednesday during her meeting with CSU lawmakers, and turned downed calls for imposing a limit to the number of refugees.

She stressed that the federal government would try to stop the refugee influx through closer cooperation with international and EU partners.

Merkel said EU’s cooperation with Ankara, would be key to find a solution.

Germany and Turkey are to hold a joint mini-Cabinet meeting on Friday, with discussions to focus on cooperation to address refugee crisis, fight against terrorism and the conflict in Syria.