Merkel faces court action threat over refugee policy

German chancellor Angela Merkel is facing increasing pressure from allies to cap the number of migrants entering the EU's largest country, and to help lower levels of government with the care of refugees.

On Tuesday (26 January), she received a letter from Horst Seehofer, prime minister of the German state Bavaria and leader of Merkel's closest coalition partner, telling her to limit the annual intake of refugees to 200,000 per year, or face a possible legal case at the country's constitutional court.

On Wednesday afternoon, Merkel is receiving representatives from German municipalities. They also want a reduction in the intake of refugees, but were less strict about the numbers: at least less than 1 million, the number that arrived last year.

“We expect the chancellor to concretise when we can finally expect a significant reduction of refugee numbers,” said Gerd Landsberg, head of the federation of German municipalities and towns, according to German newspaper Die Welt.

Seehofer's letter summarised earlier made demands from his party, the centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU), which is the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as well as a threat to take the German government to court if it doesn't take action.

Seehofer demanded secure external EU borders, controls of German border, an annual cap of 200,000 refugees, and the return of refugees to the Austrian border.

The letter, which was sent by fax to Berlin on Tuesday, as well as by post, was a “letter of demands”, according to Bavarian justice minister Winfried Bausback, and not a threat.

But the CSU and CDU's other coalition partner in the federal government, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), did see it as such.

The letter is “an announcement of a coalition rupture”, said MP Thomas Oppermann, chairman of the SPD in the Bundestag, according to Der Spiegel.

He noted that the grand coalition government did not need the support of the CSU to continue its rule: it has a majority with the CDU and SPD alone. But if the CDU and CSU, a combined party in the Bundestag, were to break up, that would be a political novelty not seen since 1976, in what was then West Germany.

Seehofer expects an answer by Friday, otherwise the letter will be published.

But first, Merkel will have to listen to the wishes of the German cities and towns on Wednesday.

She's receiving three umbrella organisations of local and regional governments in her office in Berlin. They want the federal government to step in and help to resolve practical and financial problems caused by the influx of refugees.

They want support for state benefits, finding jobs for migrants, and are worried about the lack of housing.

The demands come on top of a plea from CDU/CSU MPs to change course on her refugee policy, and criticism from her own transport minister.