Migration tops agenda for Merkel party chief

THE new leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats outlined plans yesterday to change the party’s migrant policies before next year’s European election, signaling that she could break with her mentor Angela Merkel’s liberal approach.

The conservative party elected Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to replace Merkel as its leader on Friday, making her frontrunner to become the next chancellor of Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy.

However, the narrow win over the more conservative Friedrich Merz exposed splits in Germany’s biggest party, which she must try to close before next May’s vote for the European Parliament and four state elections in 2019. One of the deepest divisions is over migrant policy.

“I want to convene a ‘workshop discussion’ on migration and security with experts and critics of migrant and refugee policies to work on improvements,” Kramp-Karrenbauer told Bild am Sonntag. “Our program for the European election will build on these results.”

Merkel’s 2015 open-door approach eroded her popularity and led to losses in regional elections, culminating in her October decision to quit as party leader. She aims to stay on as chancellor until the next federal vote in 2021.

By voting for Kramp-Karrenbauer, the CDU chose continuity but the new leader told German television this did not exclude some changes. “You stand on the shoulders of your predecessor. What is good is continued and where there is room to change things, we will make changes,” she told broadcaster ARD.

While Kramp-Karrenbauer was less critical of Merkel’s migrant policy, she has argued that migrants must learn German.