Hardline Ally Fires Migrant Ultimatum at Merkel as Trump Wades in
Trump: US will not be ‘migrant camp’
Hardliners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc on Monday gave her a two-week ultimatum to tighten asylum rules or risk pitching Germany into a political crisis that would also rattle Europe...
Hardliners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc on Monday gave her a two-week ultimatum to tighten asylum rules or risk pitching Germany into a political crisis that would also rattle Europe, as US President Donald Trump poured fuel on the fire, Agence France-Presse reported.
A defiant Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned that he would give Merkel a fortnight to find a European deal to curb new arrivals by a June 28-29 EU summit, failing which he vowed to order border police to turn back migrants.
But Merkel immediately rejected the threat, saying there would be “no automatism” if no European deals were found, and warning Seehofer and his Bavarian CSU party that she is ultimately in charge of government policies.
The sharp escalation of tensions between Merkel and her long-time Bavarian allies came with EU nations once again at loggerheads over immigration, triggered by Italy’s refusal this month to allow a rescue ship carrying 630 migrants to dock.
Seehofer has been one of the fiercest critics of Merkel’s liberal stance, under which over one million asylum seekers have been admitted into the country since 2015.
Wading into the crisis, Trump tweeted: “The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition.
“We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!”
In a related development, Reuters reported President Trump as saying on Monday that the United States would not be a “migrant camp,” as he blamed Democrats for not coming to the table to negotiate immigration legislation.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp,” he said as he opened a meeting of the National Space Council at the White House. “And it will not be refugee-holding facility - it won’t be.”
Popular misgivings over the migrant influx have given populist and anti- immigration forces a boost across several European nations, including Italy and Austria where far-right parties are now sharing power.