Talks between the German government and the opposition conservatives over the tightening of asylum and migration policy in the wake of a deadly mass stabbing by a rejected asylum seeker ended in acrimony on Tuesday.
Opposition leader Friedrich Merz declared the talks had collapsed due to the refusal of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left coalition to carry out comprehensive rejections of asylum seekers at Germany's borders - the key demand of his Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU).
"This means that the attempt to find a common path has failed," he said following the second such cross-party talks on migration in Berlin.
Scholz accused Merz of acting in bad faith, saying it was a "foregone conclusion" that the leader of the CDU would not be open to finding a middle ground even before the meeting began.
"Leadership looks different. Character, honesty and firmness are what this country needs. And not such petty sleight of hand and provincial stage acting," said Scholz.
"Leadership means that you can make compromises. But you have to want to do that," the chancellor continued.
The talks ended without the announcement of any further concrete action.
Thorsten Frei, a senior lawmaker who represented the CDU/CSU in the negotiations, said the proposals presented by the government did not go far enough.
He said the measures were aimed only at the faster removal of rejected asylum seekers, not at limiting the number of arrivals in the first place.
Prior to the talks, the conservatives had made it a condition of their participation that rejections of migrants at Germany's borders would be discussed - unlike during the first talks held last week.
Sources told dpa that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser suggested that in future, the federal police should check whether another EU member state was responsible for carrying out the asylum procedure in the event of an unauthorized entry by someone seeking protection.
The federal police could then apply to the competent court for detention due to the risk of absconding, provided that detention capacity was available.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees could then initiate an accelerated procedure for readmission by the responsible country in line with the EU's so-called Dublin rules, which lays out which EU state is responsible for assessing an an application for asylum.
On the government side, Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens called the the CDU/CSU, which are highest polling parties nationally, "irresponsibile."
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert told dpa that in recent days CDU leader Merz had repeatedly gone over the top in terms of rhetoric and content - and had seemed to want the talks to fail.
Still, Kühnert said that additional talks between the government and the CDU/CSU on curbing irregular migration remain desirable.
"But they require seriousness and the will to compromise. Both were overshadowed today by tactical considerations on the part of the opposition," he said.
The Greens also reacted sharply to the CDU and CSU's stance. "What a farce," Green Party leader Omid Nouripour told the news portal T-online.
"It's clearly not about the issue, not about real concerns, but simply about headlines, being loud and scoring points. This has nothing to do with responsibility," Nouripour also.
He charged that the CDU/CSU had made it abundantly clear that it was incapable of finding joint solutions.
The liberal Free Democrats, also partners in Scholz's beleagured three-party coalition government in Berlin, criticized the collapse of the talks.
"It is completely incomprehensible that the CDU/CSU has left the negotiations," FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai said.
The meeting on migration came a little more than a week before voters in the state of Brandenburg, near Berlin, go to the polls to elect a new state government, with migration a top concern among voters.
Established parties on both the right and the left are concerned that the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany will do well in the Brandenburg regional elections just as it did in recent regional polls in Thuringia and Saxony.
A deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen last month pushed migration issues back to the centre of the political agenda.
Three people died and several others were injured in the stabbings at a city festival. A 26-year-old Syrian man, who authorities say had his application for asylum rejected, was charged with murder and suspected membership in the Islamic State terror group.
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