Germany's opposition to join further cross-party talks on migration

Germany's centre-right opposition CDU/CSU bloc will once again join cross-party talks on migration and security policy with Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, the group's parliamentary leader confirmed on Tuesday.

The gathering, planned for 3 pm (1300 GMT) on Tuesday at the Interior Ministry in Berlin, is the second round of cross-party talks since a deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen last month pushed migration issues back to the centre of the political agenda.

The CDU/CSU bloc has demanded that Scholz's centre-left government begin turning away a much broader swath of asylum-seeking migrants at Germany's borders, and made such a policy a precondition of joining any further talks.

Sources told dpa on Monday that Interior Minister Nancy Faeser plans to bring back controls at all of Germany's land borders, and has also formulated a plan to turn away those without permission to enter the country.

"The issue is more important than the way to get there," the CDU's Thorsten Frei said on Tuesday. "We are neither foaming at the mouth nor sitting in a corner."

The CDU, or Christian Democratic Union party, is the main conservative party and the CSU, or Christian Social Union party, is the CDU's sister party in Bavaria.

The meeting comes 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.