Seehofer: No one can be forced to shoulder more than they can carry.

Reuters/AFP
Munich
A prominent ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped up his criticism of her refugee policy yesterday, demanding an end to the “Willkommenskultur” that has encouraged record numbers of migrants to seek asylum in Germany.
A day after criticising Merkel – as she stood uncomfortably beside him on stage – for refusing to put a cap on the number of refugees entering Germany, Bavarian leader Horst Seehofer called for “a culture of reason, not a culture of welcome”.
“No one can be forced to shoulder more than they can carry,” Seehofer said at a congress of his Christian Social Union (CSU) in Munich, where he was later re-elected as party chairman.
He was re-elected with his weakest score to date, seen as punishment after he berated Merkel.
Party delegates voted Seehofer back in to head the Christian Social Union (CSU) with 87.2% of the ballots.
It is his lowest score since 2008, when he took over leadership of the CSU, the powerful southern-based partner party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
When he was last re-elected two years ago he won 95.3% of the vote.
Observers said some CSU delegates wanted to punish Seehofer for his comments, though Bavarian leaders have for weeks railed against Merkel’s open-door policy.
The German news weekly Der Spiegel suggested that Seehofer’s comments did not go down well in some quarters.
“In the end his criticism somewhat turned against him because he spent minutes lecturing Merkel like a self-confident professor,” it wrote.
Visibly upset, Merkel left the CSU party congress without responding to Seehofer or the delegates.
The CSU is the sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and is a member of her coalition government in Berlin, but Seehofer has emerged as her most high-profile domestic critic in recent months.
Thousands of migrants are entering Germany daily, the vast majority flowing into Bavaria over the Austrian border, and roughly 1mn are expected to arrive this year alone.
Merkel agreed in September to suspend EU asylum rules and allow thousands of migrants camped out in precarious conditions in Hungary through to Germany.
Scenes of German volunteers applauding refugees and offering them food as they descended from trains in Munich station sparked the feel-good term “Willkommenskultur” (“welcome culture”).
But the mood has since shifted, with critics saying that Germany’s welcome has only encouraged more to risk the harrowing journey from war-torn countries such as Syria and Iraq.
Merkel, who marks her 10-year anniversary in office today, has rebuffed calls from the CSU and members of her own party to impose a formal cap on the number of refugees Germany will accept, saying that it would be impossible to enforce.
The scene on the stage in Munich on Friday underscored how politically vulnerable she has become in recent months as the tide of refugees continues, straining the resources of local communities.
A poll last week showed that 60% of Germans are unhappy with Merkel’s refugee policies.
“Seehofer humiliates Merkel,” read a headline in top-selling daily Bild.
“Horst Seehofer treated the chancellor like a school girl at the CSU congress,” the paper’s deputy editor wrote in an editorial.
In what some may interpret as another slap at Merkel, Seehofer also announced plans to travel to Moscow soon to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The attacks in Paris last week that killed 130 people have created a sense in some Western capitals that cooperation with Moscow in fighting militants should be prioritised and differences over Ukraine given less importance.
But Merkel is among those who are reluctant to discuss any easing of sanctions against Russia so long as the so-called Minsk peace deal for Ukraine has not been implemented in full.