Merkel unable to seal agreement on migrants

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel failed on Sunday to resolve differences within her ruling coalition on dealing with the crisis over a huge refugee influx, leaving open a row that has dented her conservatives’ popularity.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and long a magnet for migrants, expects between 800,000 and a million asylum seekers to arrive this year, twice as many as in any previous year, and far more than in any other European Union country.

The influx has opened up divisions within the coalition, with the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) demanding tougher action that many in the third ruling party, the Social Democrats (SPD), oppose.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert described talks on Sunday between the three party leaders as “constructive”, but said they would meet again on Thursday. German media had billed Sunday’s meeting as a crisis summit.

“There is a lot of common ground and some points that remain open and still to be settled,” Steffen said, adding that these included the idea of introducing so-called “transit zones” at border crossings to process asylum requests.

Looking glum, SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel left the chancellery after a 2-hour meeting with Merkel and Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU).

Bavaria is bearing the brunt of the influx and Seehofer is under intense pressure from municipalities in his state to press the federal government to stem the tide of arrivals from war- and poverty-stricken areas of the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

He has issued a series of ultimatums to Merkel in recent weeks, including a threat to take the government to court over its policies on migrants, only to back down at the last minute.