Merkel Coalition at Odds Over Proposal to Cap EU Asylum Places
Migrants who have arrived on foot from Austria cross one of the borders to wait for a train to Munich in Freilassing, Germany on September 18, 2015.
Photographer: Awakening/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said he doesn’t “understand” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere’s proposal for the European Union to set an upper limit to the number of people it accepts as asylum seekers.
“It’s the opposite of what the Chancellor has rightly said, namely that those who arrive in Germany and apply for asylum need a fair procedure,” Gabriel, who’s also chairman of the Social Democratic Party, said Sunday on ARD public television. “It is not a solution to establish quotas for asylum seekers. Incidentally, it is also contrary to the German constitution.”