Three things to know about Merkel’s migration showdown
Frankfurt, July 2: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s interior minister offered his resignation late Sunday after his hardline Bavarian conservatives failed to budge her over plans to limit migration into Europe and the Germany.
Here are three things to know about the background to the crisis and what’s at stake.
WHAT DO THE REBELS WANT?
The confrontation is over Merkel’s refusal of one item in Interior Minister Horst Seehofer’s 63- point so- called “masterplan” for asylum and deportations.
Seehofer wants the right to turn back at Germany’s borders asylum seekers already registered in another EU country.
He and his Bavarian CSU party — a deeply conservative outfit allied for decades with Merkel’s centre- right CDU — argue the move would simply implement EU law known as the Dublin regulation.
Merkel fears Germany unilaterally setting up border checks could cause a domino effect across the EU, undermining the Schengen freemovement zone and damaging the economy and political solidarity.
HOW HAS DISAGREEMENT BECOME CRISIS?
Refusing to give in, Seehofer set Merkel a deadline of July to find a European solution that matched his demands.
If not, he would defy her by going ahead with his border plans — likely exploding the governing coalition as the chancellor would be forced to fire him.
She says she achieved exactly what was needed in all- night talks with fellow European Union leaders last Friday and followup bilateral deals with 16 countries.
Seehofer disagreed, with the CSU saying that national measures to reduce asylum arrivals were both still needed and explicitly provided for in the text of the EU summit agreement.
IS THIS ONLY ABOUT MIGRATION?
The CSU has not missed an opportunity to make its resentment of Merkel clear since her 2015 decision to leave Germany’s borders open to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.
They and right- leaning members of the CDU fear the chancellor has led them too far into the Centre.