Germany, Europe’s top destination for refugees, is expecting to receive around one million asylum seekers, who are mainly from conflict-hit zones in the Middle East and Africa.
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Her words had been agreed on Sunday ahead of the congress, to avoid a public row between herself and party ranks more hostile to large numbers of refugees being welcomed in Germany.
Merkel also announced that migrants who only get subsidiary protection-people who do not qualify as refugees, but face real risk if deported-will have their right to family reunification frozen for 2 years. “We are ready to show what we are made of”.
And she chose to hark back to the CDU’s greatest post-war chancellors to explain her actions, name-checking Konrad Adenauer, who led Germany through its post-1945 reconstruction, and Helmut Kohl, on whose watch the country was finally reunited in 1990.
But the Chancellor also stuck doggedly to her previous line, which envisages solving the refugee crisis though European co-operation, worldwide diplomacy and financial support for those countries worst affected by the crisis.
The speech has been described as a definitive moment for Merkel.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a party convention of the Christian Democrats (CDU) in Karlsruhe, Germany, Monday, Dec. 14, 2015.
“The refugee crisis is a historic test for Europe, and I want – hopefully, I can say that we all want – that Europe passes this test”, Merkel said, adding that she and her country “will do our bit to make sure this happens”.
Merkel may yet face more resistance from within her own party to some details of her refugee policy. As the migrant crisis deepened in recent months, several CDU MPs called for an upper limit to be set and for the reinstatement of national border controls.
Speaking to ARD broadcaster on Sunday, Merkel stressed that her strategy of reducing the refugee inflow to Germany had broad support among party members.
With a wide-ranging 73-minute address to the party faithful in Karlsruhe, Merkel effectively quashed an attempt by the right-wing of the party to impose upper limits – Obergrenzen in German, referred to by the media as the “O-word” – on refugees.
“We want to, and we will, noticeably reduce the number of refugees”, she said to rapturous applause at the congress in Karlsruhe, in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg, which holds a state election next March.
Her name-checking of those thought to be her potential successors – Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen – served to reinforce their limited stature as members of team Merkel, rather than serious challengers. “In the long term no society can cope with such numbers”.
“How would somebody think about us if they said, ‘They didn’t believe in their strengths; they really didn’t do everything to find a solution, ‘” Dr Merkel said in her 70-minute speech yesterday. That stance may be seen as a contradiction of her policy allowing one million refugees into Germany while most other European nations remain hesitant to open their gates.
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Merkel’s critics still continue to question her policy. Peter Altmaier, head of her refugee crisis office, told The Independent that despite eastern European countries’ reluctance to accept refugees, he was optimistic. In the first half of the year, that group represented some 50 percent of all arrivals, she said. “It was an exercise in re-wording”, said Michael Schweizer, a spokesman for the CDU’s business council. But not every delegate was wholly enthusiastic.
