Merkel seeks to silence party rebels over refugee stance

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will face her Christian Democratic Union Monday attempting to unite the fractious conservatives behind her welcome to the biggest influx of refugees since World War II.

The two-day CDU party congress in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe is aimed at finding a common approach to the asylum issue after weeks of damaging infighting and three months before key state elections.

Germany is expected to see around one million new asylum applications this year, more than any other country in the European Union. The new arrivals have put the popular Merkel under increasing pressure, particularly in her own camp.

More than 1,000 delegates will listen to Merkel defend her call for concrete measures to drive down the number of newcomers to Germany while keeping the door open to those fleeing war and terror.

"Of course we are going to have an intense debate about this," she told public television late Sunday.

"All of Germany is debating these issues. But for me it is very important to say that we are going to live up to our humanitarian responsibility, and our responsibility to Europe."

Fortunately for Merkel, who has led the party for 15 years and Germany for a decade, she does not have to face a re-election vote this time as CDU chief.

If she did, analysts say she could suffer a similar fate to her vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, head of the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in the left-right "grand coalition" government. His party re-elected him on Friday with just 74-percent support, a weak result seen as a "slap in the face" by local media.

However Merkel and the party leadership will put a policy statement on refugees to a vote after her speech Monday that observers say will serve as a kind of referendum on her leadership.

"Merkel has invested all of her political and personal capital in this issue," Berlin's daily Tagesspiegel wrote on Sunday. "She is in effect calling a no-confidence vote at the party congress."

Photo Caption:German Chancellor and Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel attends a meeting of the party executive prior to the CDU annual federal congress in Karlsruhe, southern Germany, on December 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Thomas Kienzle)