U.S. President Barack Obama has promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “substantially” support efforts to ease the refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, a German government spokesman said on Thursday.
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“Restrictions are not per se unethical”, he told the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The outcome of Friday’s talks is not only important for Merkel, who faces intense pressure at home to impose a cap on Germany’s refugee intake, but it will also have resonance across Europe where public opinion is hardening against a record asylum seeker influx.
Austria’s government on Wednesday set a limit on the number of new refugees it’ll take in this year, with Chancellor Werner Faymann calling it an “emergency measure” meant to “shake up” the EU.
Gauck, whose office is mostly ceremonial, said that while there was no “magic, mathematical formula” for determining a nation’s capacity, limiting migration was part of preserving social stability and an open discussion was needed.
At the same time, the Dutch presidency of the European Union said it had a plan that would significantly stem the flow of refugees and migrants “within six to eight weeks” and protect EU’s borders. “If democrats do not want to talk about limitations, then populists and xenophobes will”.
Merkel said she raised thorny topics with Davutoglu such as media independence and the situation of the Kurds, but she said these issues were “very strongly outweighed” by common concerns including the refugee crisis and the battle against the IS. It’s her second such visit this month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, looks on as a staff member assists Prime Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, center, prior to a military welcome ceremony at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. “The step Mrs. Merkel took will go down in history”.
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“I find it hard to understand when countries whose citizens once experienced solidarity as the victims of political persecution now deny solidarity to those fleeing persecution”, he said.
