(AFP) Candidates hoping to succeed Angela Merkel as leader of her CDU party have sparked outrage in Germany with controversial proposals on migration as they scramble to distance themselves from her liberal refugee policy.
Merkel’s fateful decision in 2015 to keep Germany’s borders open to asylum seekers had deeply split the country.
Mindful of the souring mood over the arrival of more than a million would-be refugees since 2015, the three hopefuls to succeed Merkel — party general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Health Minister Jens Spahn and corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz — have gone out of their way to take aim at migration.
Right-wing magazine Cicero noted that the “CDU is developing these days at breathtaking speed from a Merkel party to a people’s party — because touchy subjects like flight, asylum or migration movements are increasingly being openly debated.”
