Merkel defuses refugee dispute with conservative allies

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Monday 02 Nov 2015 - 19:48 Makkah mean time-20-1-1437 (Image from DPA) Berlin, (IINA) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of her Christian Democrats' Bavarian sister party "The Christian Social Union in Bavaria" (CSU), appeared on Sunday to have defused a dispute over the country's refugee policy that has divided her conservative coalition, DPA reported. A six-page position paper, which was agreed on after 10 hours of negotiations between Merkel and Horst Seehofer, chairman of the (CSU) and Minister-President of Bavaria, called for "urgent action to better control our border", and it included transit zones where asylum seekers' applications can be assessed before they enter the country. There was no mention of capping the number of refugees, a demand that was made in the past by CSU and rejected by Merkel. In addition to the transit zones, the steps agreed include joint border patrols by German and Austrian police, the creation of a regular refugee card, and the suspension of family reunification for a period of two years in some limited instances. In a bid to secure a better grip on the thousands of refugees arriving in Germany each day, Merkel and Seehofer began talks early Sunday with Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, the junior coalition partner. Gabriel, a staunch opponent of the CSU's transit zone proposal, left the meeting after two hours. The three-way talks bore no concrete results, the government press office said. That left Merkel and Seehofer, who have frequently clashed in recent weeks over the chancellor's open-arms approach to the crisis. Some in the CSU have talked of pulling their support from Merkel, a move that would threaten the existence of the conservative bloc. Sunday's agreement smooth over the discord for now. But pointed discussions on refugee policy are expected on Thursday when the premiers of Germany's 16 states are set to have their say in a nationwide conference. The southern state of Bavaria, where Seehofer is premier, is the gateway into Germany for migrants, the majority of whom are refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and elsewhere. AG/IINA