BERLIN -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will turn to France to help defuse a domestic crisis over migration amid an increasing risk that the European Union may unravel unless its member states adopt a common policy.
At a regular meeting of their joint cabinets on Tuesday, Germany will seek the support of French President Emmanuel Macron to find a common EU response for managing an influx of people, Merkel said Saturday in a weekly podcast. The stakes for the EU are high, she said.
A dispute in Merkel's coalition over migration policy has escalated into one of the biggest tests of her chancellorship, while the populist government that took over in Italy this month has blocked vessels carrying migrants from entering Italian ports.
Getting all of the EU states on board for an overhaul of asylum practices and rules is "in my view one of the most decisive issues for European unity," the Christian Democrat chancellor said. The inflow of migrants is "a European challenge that requires a European answer."
As the domestic storm unfolded last week, Merkel remained insistent that the EU can only solve migration challenges as a group. That's fomented a deep rift between her party and its Christian Social Union allies, who claim they have national and EU authorization to start turning away asylum seekers arriving on Germany's borders who first claimed asylum in other EU states.
A European solution "doesn't convince me," said Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Soeder in a June 14 Bild Zeitung interview. The move would mean "the majority of asylum seekers who come to Europe make their way to Germany."
The joint cabinet meeting with France offers Merkel a chance to air proposals for revamping regional asylum policy ahead of a European Council meeting June 28-29. Merkel has asked the Christian Social Union to be patient, a request that the Bavarians have ignored.
A surge in asylum seekers crossing EU borders since 2015 dramatically exposed the inadequacy of the bloc's asylum rules and practices, feeding support for populist movements that have helped bring about regime changes in states including Austria and, most recently, Italy.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who this month refused entry for a boat with 600 migrants, on Saturday said on his Facebook page that the country won't permit two ships allegedly carrying migrants and asylum seekers from Libya to reach its shores.
Salvini's battle to curb arrivals from across the Mediterranean has strained relations between the new governing coalition in Rome and France just over a week after the administration led by the League party and the Five Star Movement was sworn in.
From January to May, about 78,000 people sought asylum in Germany compared with 90,000 a year ago, the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper said Saturday, citing Interior Ministry data. About a fifth of the arrivals in Germany this year were registered in other EU states and would have been turned away were rules in force sought by the Christian Social Union, the paper said.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who also leads the Christian Social Union, may be tempted to use his powers to implement his party's call for more powers to turn away asylum seekers registered in other EU states. Recent polls at least show a slim majority of Germans back Seehofer even though the method threatens to foment problems with Mediterranean partners like Italy.
A Section on 06/17/2018