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.
However, 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 on 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 apologise for recent comments he made about 69 Afghan asylum-seekers being deported on his 69th birthday, which his critics decried as insensitive.
The latest opinion poll has shown that Seehofer has proven to be unpopular with voters.
Only 37% of people surveyed for the state broadcaster ZDF’s weekly Political Barometer published on Friday said it would be “good” if Seehofer remained in his post, while 57% said it would be “bad”.
The controversial minister is also slipping down the list of Germany’s most important politicians.
Rated on a scale from minus five to plus five, Seehofer achieved an average -1.2, placing him 10th most popular.
At the end of June he was ninth, with -0.3.
Even members of his own conservative bloc currently only rate him -0.3 on average.
Asked how they would vote if an election were held this today, 31% opted for the conservatives, a weekly drop of one point; the centre-left junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), remained unchanged on 18%.
The largest opposition party, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), gained one point to 15%; the Greens remained unchanged on 14%, the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) gained one point to 11 per cent, while the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) lost two points to 7%.
The telephone survey was carried out by Mannheim-based researchers Wahlen (Vote, or Elections) between July 9 and 12 of 1,340 randomly chosen German voters.


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