Berlin: Two weeks after winning elections with a reduced majority, German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a first step on Sunday toward forming a government by trying to unite her conservative camp, which is bitterly divided over refugee policy.
Ms Merkel met for private talks with her Bavarian CSU allies led by Horst Seehofer, who blames her open-door policy that has brought over one million asylum seekers since 2015 for the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Mr Seehofer — who after a vote drubbing faces internal challengers, and state elections in 2018 — has revived his calls to cap the national refugee intake at 200,000 a year, a demand Ms Merkel has consistently rejected as unconstitutional.
In an opening salvo on Sunday, the CSU published a 10-point list of demands, including a refugee “upper limit”, a broad return to the conservative roots of the centre-right alliance, and a committment to “healthy patriotism”.
The talks were expected to last deep into the night, with Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrm-ann conceding the situati-on was “not easy”.
