German chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned as "repulsive" a violent stand-off in Saxony between German police and a far-right mob over an asylum-seeker home.
Flanked by French president Francois Hollande in Berlin, the German leader said she expected all EU member states to pull their weight and accept refugees in line with existing agreements.
“It’s repulsive how the far right and neo-Nazis try to spread their primitive messages of hate,” said Dr Merkel ahead of talks to discuss the refugee crisis.
“It’s just as shameful that citizens, even families with children, should support these things by participating.”
After several nights of running street battles, Dr Merkel described the atmosphere in Heidenau, a town of 16,000 people 15km southeast of Dresden in Germany’s east, as “aggressive, xenophobic . . . that is in no way acceptable”.
Since Friday evening, police have sealed off an area around a DIY store and are protecting 250 asylum seekers inside, with more arrivals to follow in the coming days.
Amid growing pressure on Dr Merkel to visit the town, her deputy leader Sigmar Gabriel stopped by on Monday.
“The brown mob that’s spread out here in the last days you cannot give even a millimetre of room,” he said.
Few of the asylum seekers in Heidenau dared to talk to the media. One who did, Hassan Hassani from Afghanistan, said he was anxious to complete his education after fleeing his home in fear. "I was afraid there," he said, "but now I'm afraid here."
The asylum issue dominated Monday’s Franco-German talks in Berlin. Mr Hollande said that “no situation, however painful, can justify these acts” but said it was obvious that “tensions” were the result in member states shouldering the greatest burden.
‘Get organised’
“There are moments in European history when we face exceptional circumstances and these are exceptional circumstances that will last,” said Mr Hollande ahead of talks. “So, rather than wait and then cope on a day-to-day basis, we must get organised and strengthen our policies.”
The German leader agreed, saying that she expected all member states to meet their obligations and provide minimum standards for accommodation and healthcare – and for the European Commission to act against countries who failed to do so.
She added it was overdue that member states harmonise a list of so-called countries of safe origin, in particular for southeastern Europe, to allow expedited asylum applications.
Dr Merkel also called for jointly-run EU centres on the outer border in Greece and Italy, to ensure that all arrivals are registered.
“This has to happen this year,” she said. “We have a common asylum law which is, by and large, not being applied.”
Last week Germany almost doubled its asylum seeker forecast for 2015 to 800,000; attacks on shelters have also doubled in frequency to 200 since January.
The annual cost of housing and processing refugees may top €10 billion in Germany this year, according to one set of calculations in the German media.
In Brussels, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said that political “finger-pointing” and not his executive were to blame for the growing refugee crisis.
“What we need, and what we are sadly still lacking, is the collective courage to follow through on our commitments – even when they are not easy, even when they are not popular,” said Mr Juncker in France’s Le Figaro and Germany’s Die Welt.
“Instead what I see is finger pointing – a tired blame game which might win publicity, maybe even votes, but which is not actually solving any problems.”
