The Christian Social Union (CSU), the long-standing Bavarian partner of Germany's dominant party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has proposed a cap on the number of refugees that Germany will accept. Calls for limits on migrant inflows has been spearheaded by Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU which governs the federal state of Bavaria where many refugees head.
This has put it in a collision course with the CDU and German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has resisted calls for "Obergrenze", or cap on the number of refugees entering Germany. Merkel has said that the right to asylum for people suffering from political persecution cannot be limited.
Even within the CDU itself, The Guardian reported in early October that 34 local CDU officials wrote Chancellor Merkel a letter saying that "The open borders policy we are now implementing is not in line with either European or German law, nor does it reflect the CDU's programme."
However, Reuters reported on December 9, 2015 that legal experts at the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, have serious doubts about the legality of introducing a cap on refugee numbers, according to a document obtained by German broadcaster ARD. These experts found that EU asylum and refugee laws did put a numerical limit on people seeking protection, the report said.
The same report also said that a European-wide cap would be "problematic" and would only be possible if people granted refugee status under the Geneva Convention were sent to safe third countries. The year 2015 saw an enormous spike in the number of refugees arriving in Europe, fleeing the various armed conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, particularly Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Germany opened the door to the refugees with support of the country's three major parties: the CDU, the Social Democrats and the Greens, as well most of the German populace.
As a result, Germany was swamped with refugees with estimates ranging from 800,000 to 1.5 million for 2015 alone. The record inflow of refugees has strained Germany's capacity to process and house refugees and provide education for refugee children. Arson attacks on refugee shelters continue on an almost daily basis. There are mounting concerns that elements of the far-right may be able to use people's fears that the economy may be unable to cope with this large influx of refugees to stoke xenophobia.
Jens Spahn, a leading member of the CDU, has publicly raised the need for discussions on how long Germany can cope with the refugee influx. (See Refugee crisis: Germany creaks under strain of open door policy).
