Weise’s pronouncent came hours after German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party had underestimated the challenge Germany faces as more migrate to that country, Sunday Express reported.
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The head of Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) told a German newspaper that he expected a maximum of 300,000 refugees to arrive in Germany this year.
Merkel said she welcomes the debate on taxes and signalled she’ll take a stand next spring when the 2016 budget data are in. But she reiterated her stance that blocking refugees based on their religion was misguided. “We’re going to have to keep discussing that”.
Frank-Juergen Weise says his agency is planning for between 250,000 and 300,000 new arrivals in 2016.
Merkel’s future candidacy may ultimately rest in the hands of the Erdogan government in Turkey that has grown increasingly dismayed by the European Union’s reticence to offer Turkish citizens visa-free travel within the Schengen Zone in completion of the controversial Turkey-EU migrant deal.
Refugees and migrants try to jam on buses near the border crossing with Serbia In Roszke, Hungary on September 8, 2015 as they seek asylum in Germany.
Anti-migrant feeling has increased strongly in Germany over the past year, resulting in growing support for a nationalist party to the right of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats and a fall in popularity for the chancellor, who has stuck by her motto, “We will manage”.
Bild am Sonntag cited a poll by independent opinion research group Emnid showing 50 percent of respondents opposed another four-year term for Merkel, while 42 percent said they wanted her to stay in office.
According to reports Mrs Merkel’s home state is not taking many refugees and is housing just two percent of the millions who have arrived.
European Union governments are now divided between Germany, France, and a few others who want the refugee flow to continue and Austria and most of Eastern Europe who want the migration to be severely curtailed.
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More than 58,000 people remain stuck in the financially struggling country, most hoping to continue north to nations like Germany or Sweden.
