Merkel on tightrope over disputed migrant policy
Clash over refugee policy haunts Chancellor
Berlin, June 12: German Chancellor Angela Merkel was fighting Tuesday to stamp out the first major row within her uneasy coalition, as disputes over her refugee policy returned to haunt her while she negotiates a broad EU asylum deal.
The discord within her conservative bloc burst into the open when interior minister Horst Seehofer of Merkel's Bavarian allies CSU hastily cancelled plans to present his “masterplan” on immigration.
The interior ministry said in a short statement that the presentation had been pushed back because “several points still need to be agreed”.
Seehofer, the former premier of conservative Bavaria state, has long been one of the fiercest critics of Merkel's decision to open Germany's borders at the height of Europe's migration crisis in 2015.
The migrant influx has shaped German politics since. Voters handed Merkel her worst ever score in September's elections as well as giving the far- right AfD seats for the first time in the Bundestag.
With a crucial state
● The discord within conservative bloc burst into open when interior minister Horst Seehofer cancelled plans to present his ‘ masterplan’ on immigration
election in Bavaria coming up in October, Seehofer and his Christian Social Union party are anxious to stop a haemorrhage of support to the Islamophobic AfD.
The CSU's strategy is underpinned by Seehofer's 63- point immigration plan, anchored by the key proposal to push migrants back across the border.
Standing his ground late Monday, Seehofer stressed that all 63 points of his plan “are in my view necessary in order to restore control and order in Germany.”
He added that he would not “publish a half- baked plan with lazy compromises.”