Berlin - The government of Germany’s state of Bavaria met on Friday to discuss plans to reduce the daily number of incoming migrants fleeing war and poverty, defying Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has vowed to welcome all legitimate refugees.
German society has been deeply divided since Merkel opened the country’s borders on September 5 to avert a humanitarian crisis, after tens of thousands of migrants accumulated at an overwhelmed train station in Budapest, Hungary.
An influential poll on Friday showed only 45 percent of Germans believe Germany can cope with and absorb all the new arrivals.
The poll for ZDF television showed 51 percent believe Germany cannot house and integrate them, a sharp rise from the 40 percent of doubters just two weeks ago.
The state of Bavaria, ruled by the centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU), normally a Merkel ally, has stepped forward in the last few days to oppose the chancellor’s open-border policy.
Its cabinet met in Munich under the leadership of state Premier Horst Seehofer and was due to announce its plans to the media at 2pm (13.00 GMT).
Seehofer has indicated he will seek ways to reduce the number of migrants arriving over the border from Austria as well as require
trains carrying migrants to continue through Bavaria without stopping.
It is unclear if Bavaria would have authority to alter border-policing activities. Currently, Germany’s federal border guards register migrants as they arrive and order them to travel to refugee welcome centres round the country.
Bavaria’s move comes as German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere warned against an increase in violence against migrants, with 490 attacks on refugee shelters registered so far this year.
“We are seeing a massive rise in xenophobic attacks on asylum seekers,” de Maiziere told newspapers of the Funke media group on Friday.
Two thirds of the suspected perpetrators are local citizens who otherwise had no criminal record, according to the interior minister’s comments.
Thousands of migrants continue to come into Germany on a daily basis. On peak days last month, 10 000 arrived on a single day.
DPA