‘ Put to the test’
Merkel heads off rebellion with pledge to reduce refugee intake.
• Angela Merkel headed off a rebellion from her own Christian Democrat party Monday when she pledged to reduce the number of refugees in Germany.
In a defiant speech to her party conference, the German chancellor defended her controversial policy, claiming it had been a “humanitarian imperative” at the height of the migrant crisis.
But she said the time had come to “reduce the number of refugees appreciably” before Germany was “overwhelmed.”
Merkel was facing open revolt within her party in the days before the conference, with rebels demanding she close the borders to refugees or impose a limit on the number allowed into the country.
But a last-minute deal appears to have seen off the crisis, as the party united behind a compromise motion pledging to cut numbers without naming an upper limit.
The vote was touted as a test of whether Merkel could still command the party, but in the event it was passed on a simple show of hands.
There was little sign of division as delegates gave Merkel, who was last week named Time magazine’s person of the year, a nineminute standing ovation.
In a speech frequently interrupted by applause, she backed her decision to open the country’s doors to asylum- seekers as an emergency measure to deal with the crisis of the summer. “Thousands of refugees were stranded in Budapest, they were setting out on foot along the road to Austria,” she said.
“This was a situation that put our European values to the test more than ever before. It was nothing more or less than a humanitarian imperative. What we have seen on television now comes literally to our door. This is a historic test for Europe. I want, we want, Europe to answer this test.”
More than one million asylum seekers have arrived in Germany this year, and Merkel has seen her approval ratings plummet as public opinion has turned against her policy.
“Even a strong country like Germany would in the long run be unable to cope with such a large number of refugees,” she told party delegates.
But she gave little detail on how her government intends to cut the numbers, saying only t hat Turkey would play a “key role.”
Under a new agreement the EU is to give Turkey three billion euros ($ 4.53 billion) in aid and reopen the way to eventual Turkish membership in exchange for help in cutting the numbers of refugees travelling to Europe.