Merkel Seeks Migration Compromise to Keep Coalition Together

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From left: Armin Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia; Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany; and Volker Bouffier, the state premier of Hesse, in Berlin on Monday.CreditClemens Bilan/EPA, vis Shutterstock

By Melissa Eddy

June 18, 2018

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel and her rebellious interior minister huddled with their respective parties on Monday in an effort to defuse a brewing dispute over her refugee policy that threatened to bring down the German government only three months after it was sworn in.

At the heart of the dispute is a pledge by the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, to reverse the open-door policy toward migrants that the chancellor adopted in the summer of 2015, when she agreed that anyone seeking asylum could enter Germany. Mr. Seehofer leads the Bavarian conservative party, the Christian Social Union, the sister party and crucial coalition partner to Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

More than one million people entered Germany in the first year of the asylum policy, a majority of them coming up through Bavaria, which shares a 500-mile border with Austria. At the time, Bavarians turned out in droves to welcome the refugees with gifts of food and clothing at bus and train stations, and the government of Munich pledged to provide a bed for every migrant headed there. But the state has since soured on such generosity.

Mr. Seehofer has vowed to refuse entry to undocumented migrants and those who have already registered in another European Union member country, part of what the Bavarian conservatives are calling an “asylum-reversal.”

The chancellor and her Christian Democrats pledged in the agreement defining the terms of their government that 2015 would remain an exception that was not to be repeated. But Mr. Seehofer’s party faces a crucial election in October, and it is determined to toughen its stance on the migration issue, faced with the growing popularity of the anti-immigrant, populist party Alternative for Germany.

“We are convinced that Germany needs reversal in its asylum policy,” said Markus Söder, a member of Mr. Seehofer’s party and the governor of Bavaria. “Of course, it would be good if there is a European solution, but in three years that hasn’t been reached.”

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer at the Christian Social Union party board meeting in Munich on Saturday.CreditMarc Mueller/EPA, via Shutterstock

As interior minister, Mr. Seehofer has drawn up a 63-point plan for tackling migration to Germany. It was supposed to be put before the cabinet last week, but Ms. Merkel refused to approve the point about turning back people at the borders.

The chancellor has long insisted that migration is a Europe-wide problem that can be solved only through a Europe-wide solution, and that adopting Mr. Seehofer’s position would spell the end to freedom of movement throughout the European Union, a cornerstone of membership in the bloc. Under what is known as the Schengen Agreement, most countries in the bloc allow foreigners who enter one member state to cross into others without showing their passports or clearing customs.

Ms. Merkel has been asking her coalition to delay addressing the issue until European Union leaders convene in Brussels to discuss immigration and other issues affecting the 28 members of the bloc on June 28 and 29. But the migration issue has stymied the partners for years, and the recent rise of euroskeptic governments has not made the efforts easier.

Members of her own conservative party are split, with the more conservative wing backing Mr. Seehofer and the more centrist members throwing their weight behind the chancellor.

“We won’t accept that the Schengen system is given up on the Belgian, Dutch and the French and Luxembourg western borders,” said Armin Laschet, the conservative governor of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. “A European solution is the only acceptable way.”

If Mr. Seehofer, who has long been critical of the chancellor, decides to defy her, it could spell an end to the 70-year alliance between his Bavarian conservatives and those whom she represents in the remainder of the country.

That, in turn, could lead to the collapse of Ms. Merkel’s government, which also includes the center-left Social Democrats, who joined only reluctantly and are still struggling to recover from their poor showing in the national election last September.

Later on Monday, the chancellor is to meet Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy, representing the new, populist government in Rome that has taken a hard line on migration. Italy’s support will be crucial if the chancellor is to draw up a joint European Union agreement on the issue.