Germany: Merkel Struggles With Immigration Policy

Immigration is once again shaping German politics. In recent days, the debate over how to deal with asylum seekers and economic migrants reaching Germany has led to frictions between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Last week, prominent CSU member and German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer presented a plan to reject undocumented immigrants and migrants who have already applied for asylum elsewhere in the European Union at the German border. Merkel opposes this plan. On June 18, the CSU gave Merkel until the European Council meeting on June 28-29 to find a bloc-wide solution to the situation of immigrants reaching the European Union. But because immigration is a very divisive topic in the union, Merkel will struggle to find a deal with the other member countries in so little time....