June 15, 2018
BERLIN (AP) — A spat within the German government over migration turned to name-calling Friday, with one ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel accusing another of acting like a "bonsai Trump" by threatening to turn some refugees back at the border.
The dispute has raised questions over Merkel's future, as nationalist forces already in power elsewhere in Europe turn up the heat on the long-serving German chancellor for her welcoming stance toward migrants.
Among Merkel's sharpest critics is Bavaria's governor Markus Soeder, whose Christian Social Union is taking an increasingly hard line ahead of state elections this fall even though it forms part of the governing coalition at the national level.
Soeder and his party colleague Horst Seehofer — Germany's interior minister — want to send police to the border to turn back migrants who have registered as refugees in other European countries. Merkel has warned that such a move could shift the burden onto countries such as Italy and Greece that have struggled to cope with the influx of migrants coming across the Mediterranean.
"Mr. Soeder is behaving like a bonsai Trump," said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, referring to the U.S. president's anti-immigration stance. Nahles said her party, which is also a member of the governing coalition in Berlin, backs Merkel's call for a Europe-wide consensus on how to tackle the issue of irregular migration.
"We won't allow the panic of the (Bavarian) state government to take all of Germany and Europe hostage," said Nahles. Soeder says his party, which is fearful of losing voters to the far-right Alternative for Germany in the Bavarian election on Oct. 14, wants to "put the needs of our population center-stage."
His words echo those of populist politicians in other European countries such as Austria, Britain and Italy, where fear of migrants has tilted politics to the right in recent years. Commentators in Germany have noted that the spat is one of the biggest crises for Merkel, who was recently elected for a fourth term with only a narrow majority.
Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told broadcaster n-tv on Friday that some in her party side with Soeder on the issue. The German government has already imposed numerous measures to reduce the influx of refugees since 2015, when the number of migrants coming to Germany peaked follow Merkel's decision not to close the border to people coming through Hungary and Austria.
The country of some 80 million now sees about 11,000 new asylum-seekers per month. Germany's finance minister, a Social Democrat, seemed to suggest that further intrigue within the coalition could end in a bloodbath.
"The task of governing our country isn't an episode of Game of Thrones, but a serious matter," Ola Scholz said on Twitter. "All those involved should never forget this."
BERLIN (AP) — A spat within the German government over migration turned to name-calling Friday, with one ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel accusing another of acting like a "bonsai Trump" by threatening to turn some refugees back at the border.
The dispute has raised questions over Merkel's future, as nationalist forces already in power elsewhere in Europe turn up the heat on the long-serving German chancellor for her welcoming stance toward migrants.
Among Merkel's sharpest critics is Bavaria's governor Markus Soeder, whose Christian Social Union is taking an increasingly hard line ahead of state elections this fall even though it forms part of the governing coalition at the national level.
Soeder and his party colleague Horst Seehofer — Germany's interior minister — want to send police to the border to turn back migrants who have registered as refugees in other European countries. Merkel has warned that such a move could shift the burden onto countries such as Italy and Greece that have struggled to cope with the influx of migrants coming across the Mediterranean.
"Mr. Soeder is behaving like a bonsai Trump," said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democrats, referring to the U.S. president's anti-immigration stance. Nahles said her party, which is also a member of the governing coalition in Berlin, backs Merkel's call for a Europe-wide consensus on how to tackle the issue of irregular migration.
"We won't allow the panic of the (Bavarian) state government to take all of Germany and Europe hostage," said Nahles. Soeder says his party, which is fearful of losing voters to the far-right Alternative for Germany in the Bavarian election on Oct. 14, wants to "put the needs of our population center-stage."
His words echo those of populist politicians in other European countries such as Austria, Britain and Italy, where fear of migrants has tilted politics to the right in recent years. Commentators in Germany have noted that the spat is one of the biggest crises for Merkel, who was recently elected for a fourth term with only a narrow majority.
Wolfgang Bosbach, a member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told broadcaster n-tv on Friday that some in her party side with Soeder on the issue. The German government has already imposed numerous measures to reduce the influx of refugees since 2015, when the number of migrants coming to Germany peaked follow Merkel's decision not to close the border to people coming through Hungary and Austria.
The country of some 80 million now sees about 11,000 new asylum-seekers per month. Germany's finance minister, a Social Democrat, seemed to suggest that further intrigue within the coalition could end in a bloodbath.
"The task of governing our country isn't an episode of Game of Thrones, but a serious matter," Ola Scholz said on Twitter. "All those involved should never forget this."
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