Party colleagues distance themselves from hardline German minister
(dpa)
Berlin Already facing heavy criticism from opposition parties and his Social Democrat coalition partners, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is also up against resistance to his hardline migration stance from within his own party.
"His actions are now astonishing and alienating many," Erwin Huber, a lawmaker in the southern state of Bavaria who once led Seehofer's Christian Social Union (CSU), told the Spiegel weekly.
The minister's push to begin turning away some migrants from German borders put him on a collision course with Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose Christian Democrats (CDU) have been long-standing allies to the CSU, and caused a stir at the EU level as countries sought to find a common solution.
But his stance could also cause him trouble closer to home in the state where his party is based.
"The initial full approval of Seehofer's asylum policies has given way in the state parliament to a guessing game," Huber told Spiegel, in comments published Friday.
In Bavaria, there are concerns that political risks taken by the minister at national level could hurt the CSU's chances in state elections set for October.
"Refugees are not scapegoats for developments that go wrong in our society," CSU member and founder of the "Union of the Centre," Stephan Bloch, told Spiegel.
The CDU/CSU initiative is seeking to prevent the decades-long alliance from being pulled further to the right.
Bloch is also calling on Seehofer to apologize for recent comments he made about 69 Afghan asylum seekers being deported on his 69th birthday, which his critics decried as insensitive.
The minister's push to begin turning away some migrants from German borders put him on a collision course with Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose Christian Democrats (CDU) have been long-standing allies to the CSU, and caused a stir at the EU level as countries sought to find a common solution.
But his stance could also cause him trouble closer to home in the state where his party is based.
"The initial full approval of Seehofer's asylum policies has given way in the state parliament to a guessing game," Huber told Spiegel, in comments published Friday.
In Bavaria, there are concerns that political risks taken by the minister at national level could hurt the CSU's chances in state elections set for October.
"Refugees are not scapegoats for developments that go wrong in our society," CSU member and founder of the "Union of the Centre," Stephan Bloch, told Spiegel.
The CDU/CSU initiative is seeking to prevent the decades-long alliance from being pulled further to the right.
Bloch is also calling on Seehofer to apologize for recent comments he made about 69 Afghan asylum seekers being deported on his 69th birthday, which his critics decried as insensitive.