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75 percent of Germans support Merkel's European approach to refugee crisis

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75 percent of Germans support Merkel's European approach to refugee crisis
Refugees in Mainz. Photo: DPA

Most Germans support an EU solution for dealing with asylum seekers who arrive on the continent. At the same time they back a proposal to turn people back at the German border, a survey showed on Thursday.

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According to a survey released by ARD on Thursday, three quarters of Germans support Angela Merkel's approach of finding a European solution to the asylum dispute which is threatening to collapse her government.

The survey also showed that the majority of those asked were in favour of rejecting at Germany's borders any refugee who had already been registered in another EU country.

Only 22 percent of those questioned during the Deutschlandtrend survey would like Germany to take a national approach. This opinion is shared by all sections of society and all party supporters (with the exception of AfD supporters, 60 percent of whom were against a European compromise).

Those surveyed were pessimistic about the way in which this dispute would be settled, with only 36 percent of respondents believing that a European solution to the refugee crisis would be found in the near future. A majority of 59 percent were sceptical that this could be achieved.

The same survey asked participants whether they were for or against refugees (who were already registered in another EU country) being rejected at the German borders. 62 percent were for this, with 31 percent saying such people should be allowed into the country.

At one end of the spectrum, 96 percent of AfD voters supported rejecting already-registered refugees at Germany's borders. But 68 percent of Green Party voters were against this on the other end of the spectrum.

Support for both coalition partners - the Christian Union (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) - has increased by one point since the middle of June, according to the “Sonntagsfrage” (Sunday survey).

If a general election happened on Sunday, the CDU/CSU would win 32 percent, and the SPD would win 19 percent of the votes. Support for the AfD has dropped a point to 14 percent, whilst support for the Greens is stable at 13 percent.

Die Linke has sunk one point to 9 percent and support for the Free Democrats (FDP) remains at eight percent.

SEE ALSO: Almost half of Germans want Merkel to resign, poll shows

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Anonymous 2018/06/29 11:21
I would be interested in finding out what the German population would think if under a European solution all flagged vessels picking up refugees would constitute the country of origin for those refugees picked up by that vessel. An example would be if a German flagged NGO ship picks up 200 refugees then those 200 are considered Germany's responsibility rather than the closest port of debarkation. This would reduce the burden on nations bordering the Mediterranean, and place the responsibility squarely on those ships conducting sea operations involving the rescue of refugees in any area of the Mediterranean. If it is an EU solution then the solution should not primarily rest on southern EU member countries.

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