Migrants’ families awkward issue in new German gov’t talks

FILE: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, chairperson of the CDU (Photo By Armin Linnartz, CC BY-SA 3.0 de)

BERLIN — The rights of migrants to bring relatives to Germany looks set to be a sticking point again as political leaders mull forming a new government.

The centre-left Social Democrats will decide this week whether to talk with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives about renewing their coalition of the past four years, or at least supporting a minority government.

Merkel’s talks with two smaller parties collapsed last month.

One difficult point there, although it appeared on track to be resolved and didn’t in itself sink the effort, was the left-leaning Greens’ call for relatives to be allowed to join people granted protection that falls short of asylum.

The Social Democrats also want that.

But senior conservative Horst Seehofer told Tuesday’s Bild daily he “cannot imagine” agreeing, saying it would lead to “massive immigration.

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