Thomas de maiziere challenged the chancellor prevailing policy. He suggested stopping automatic recognition of asylumseekers and preventing family members from coming to germany later. Is that chancellor still captain of her ship when it comes to the refugee crisis, and how much support does she still enjoy within her own party . Coming to you from berlin, quadriga. Your host, terry martin. Terry hello and welcome. She has become the goto in europe, brokering deals on everything from the debt crisis to the ukraine conflict. Says she iszine now more powerful than barack obama. But even Angela Merkel has her limits. Could she have finally met her match in the current migration crisis . Thats the question we are exploring this week on quadriga. We have three journalists with us to explore this question. Erik kirschbaum is an american journalist from new york. He works for reuters in berlin. He thinks that turmoil in merkels party raises questions about possible intrigues behind the scenes. Andreas clue is Berlin Bureau ef at the economist. He says critics are wrong to assume that merkel is going to the toppled. She remains the dominant figure in her party. Corinna and once is a ard and onlineor correspondent for tagesschau. De. She says it is unclear whether merkel will keep her power. It has been a chaotic week in german politics. Weve been getting mixed messages coming from the chancellor and her cabinet. Erik, is this just a case of communication breakdown inside chancellor merkels cabinet, or something more serious . Erik much more serious. Thomas de maiziere is an ally of merkel. Hes a powerful figure in the cabinet. He and the finance minister are both staging a small rebellion, letting merkel no it is not ok whats going on. A lot of people in germany are upset with the loss of control of the borders. Riftthe seeds of a serious in the government that could be a problem for merkel. Terry corinna, thomas de maiziere, he announced further restrictions on refugees coming into germany and the families of refugees, that seemed to catch the rest of the covenant offguard. Is there a strategy behind this or is it really that the rest of the cabinet didnt know what the interior minister was up to . Corinna i would believe that they didnt know it. I think de maiziere wants to show his opinion. He has been weakened by a political change in administration because the refugee issue is now part of the chancellery. There is a new refugee coordinator who is very close to merkel. De maiziere was supposed to be a very close ally. In this issue, he has a different opinion since many months. T is a bit nasty absolutely not smart. Merkel, i would be really angry. Terry it seems nasty indeed. One wonders whether theres some subterfuge going on in the cabinet. Are we going to see a palace coup in the making . Is there mutiny in the ranks . I dont think so. People who are criticizing her in her own party realize that there is really at the moment no alternative to her. Kind of ironic to germans. Is a word that she once coined in the eurozone crisis. Alternativeless. There is even a party called the alternative for germany. Ironically, we are now at the point where there is no personal alternative to her. Talking about the finance minister Wolfgang Charlotte stepping in if she were ousted, but nobody else would be able to do anything much differently than merkel. They would fail themselves. I think both germany and europe would fail much faster. Terry de maiziere wants to send out signals that syrians cant bring their whole family here. Is sending that signal not only to the syrians, but to the rankandfile out there. Corinna still, Angela Merkel is somethingllor and has like a competence guideline. These boys shouldnt go that forward in the public. Terry why are they doing it . Corinna in my view, at the moment, she is a weak leader. She should keep them quiet. Andreas we would do the same thing. For him, it is part selfdefense. He has been dumped on. He has a very tough job. Demotedeks ago, he was when chancellor merkel made her chief of staff the coordinator for the refugee policy inside the chancellors office. Everyone saw that as a demotion. Hes been under enormous pressure. He has to send signals to the syrians and to his party. I dont think that amounts to a threat. Terry we wonder. Just so our viewers understand what happened here, apparently determiningon for what happens to refugees, saying something that european leaders agreed on a long time ago, chancellor merkel suspended it. Now, de maiziere apparently reinstated this policy in october without telling the rest of the government. That seems like a breach of trust too many. I want to put it to you, corinna. The chancellor has no express her complete confidence in de maiziere as interior minister. In thesed that phrase past. It turned out to be the kiss of death. Is this the kiss of death for de maiziere . Corinna it might be. In an emergency situation like now, he might have gone already. He didnt do a good job. Institution who is responsible for migration and takes all the seekers papers, they were informed too late. He didnt do a good job. Maybe thats why he now wants to show that hes still in power. Terry we want to bring this discussion back to chancellor merkel herself. We will find out what happens with de maiziere in the weeks to come. Merkel has won a lot of praise for her position on the refugee to the extending refugees coming to europe. She has a lot of critics too. The barbs that are being hurled at her now are numerous and sharp. Countries only provided guaranteed refuge for a limited time. Thats what we will be going in the future with syrians as well. We want to see a restriction on or reduction of the refugee numbers. Of course, we have to put a limit on families arriving later. Our intake capacities are not unlimited. It is therefore necessary to check each individual case and for people in syria to be aware that not everyone can come here. If we say families can follow without any problems, its dishonest. We have to assure that accommodation can be provided. Which is where reality comes in. Terry reality, a big slap in the face when it comes to the refugee crisis. Corinna, has the chancellor lost touch with reality by saying, come to germany, we are not going to put any upper limits . Corinna she hasnt lost touch. It refers to our constitution. The genevaned convention on refugees. Shes right, and shes longterm thinking. She knows that we have to take responsibility. But of course, we as europe, not only as germany, behind all this, theres a big failure of european leaders. It is also her failure. She is considered to the a strong european leader. Why didnt she prepare herself on this situation . It didnt come overnight. Since enough warning 2011. She was perceived as going out on a limb with this, and also going out with an idea and embracing the refugees coming to europe without really conferring completely with some of her european colleagues. Many have said this was alternativeless. That is what she said too. Im just wondering about chancellor merkel, what has happened during this crisis. She has morphed from protective asriarch to a little prey we are seeing this week for the first time. People beginning to question her authority openly. Andreas, is the chancellors powerbase beginning to slip . Andreas shes marked in a number of ways. Perceived as , now, theer europe position of supplicant, going to other European Partners and wanting something and maybe not getting it. That is a perception thing. The other metamorphosis, i would say, is she went from a leader who was always considered to be leading from behind, as it was, the politics of small steps. Almost case, spontaneously forging ahead in andweekend of september 4 5, and doing something that some people regarded as emotional, and therefore leaving. A lot of people who have criticized her from leaving the back are saying, it is not ok to the leading from the front. Is her powerbase slipping . We will see. Specifically to that, the attacks on her in parliament will not be coming from the left , which agrees with her policies. Is torn internally and will not be ousting her. It is only her own ranks if you disregard the alternative for germany, which is outside parliament. In her own ranks, there was a poll just a few weeks ago. On the question, should merkel the chancellor again, 40 of spd members said their boss should be chancellor. Is readyelieve the cdu to sacrifice her. They know that they would lose elections without her. And there would be nothing else. Is,f it keeps going like it fd is back alive again, if it keeps going like this, they are going to sound very nervous. A lot of voters dont like what is going on. This is certainly a problem for the cdu. Merkel was a bit too open. Now, people like schaeuble and de maiziere are getting away with it. In the past, men who would do Something Like this to merkel would be history. They are getting away with it, which shows shes week. Terry some of her closest allies in the party and in the cabinet are now beginning to kind of contradict her in public. Were also seeing what seems to the a breach of administrative trust when youre interior minister doesnt tell you he has changed the rules. Erik germans dont like chaos. They want their governments to be together and organized. Terry the question is being raised in the mind of the german voters about competence of the leadership in this crisis. Chancellor merkel won a lot of praise. Right now, we are seeing a lot of people standing up and saying, enough is enough. We dont even know how many refugees are in the country. The government has admitted they dont really know how many are there. Chancellor merkel is having to turn around on her policy. Erik, is this an avalanche . Erik the lord the finance minister used last night, avalanche. He said avalanches can be caused by people who are bad skiers. We all know germans love control. They look orderly society. Right now, with a Million People in the last two or three months, theres a sense that they are losing control of their country. That is upsetting a lot of people and hurting merkels party. Terry before we moved to our next session, how dangerous is the situation for chancellor merkel, corinna . Corinna it is dangerous. She knows that. Peopleend of the day, will look whether she has managed the situation. Does she still have the situation under control . Both her government, but also the refugees and how to i think theem government is the bigger problem. If they would stay together, step back, and say, we will take some time, but everything is on the way, we are one of the richest countries in the world, we can manage the situation local leaders do a good job. Ministers inrior the federal states are beginning to rebel. Corinna of course. Clear. Absolutely clear. It is maybe the most difficult situation in the last 20 years. It is a tremendous challenge. Everyone knows, from mrs. Merkel to the people criticizing her, the only real lever to close off the refugees is somewhere near turkey, between turkey, syria, and egypt. If you look at europe, where is a leader of mrs. Merkels stature if theres anybody, somebody who can work with turkey and the surrounding countries to have a solution that keeps more refugees there, it is still her. Terry as we mentioned at the beginning, chancellor merkel is the goto leader in europe when it comes to addressing these questions. It does however bear repeating, the question, where does chancellor merkel stand on the refugee crisis . You mentioned, andreas, that german voters dont like chaos. The chancellors position on the refugee crisis has been moving over time. On one hand, she is very generous, but she has been playing a bit of policy hopscotch lately. The chancellor with a teenage refugee on tv in july, a performance dismissed by many as coldhearted. You know yourself in Palestinian Refugee camps in lebanon, there are thousands of people. If we say you can all come, it would be too much for us to manage. In early september, tens of thousands of refugees left hungary, headed for germany. The chancellors opendoor policy earned her the neck name mother merkel. If we now have to start apologizing for showing a welcoming face in emergencies, that isnt my country. But that phase is no longer quite so welcoming. The German Government now wants to deter new arrivals and is reinstating the dublin regulation. That means being sent back to the eu countries they were registered in. Which merkel face is the real one . Not a lot of consistency there, andreas. Do you think we will see germany backing away, or could merkel flip again . Andreas i paid to differ that there is this alleged inconsistency. I watched this event that we just saw. That was this summer. The girl had cerebral palsy. She was born in a refugee camp. Mrs. Merkel, when she broke down crying, showed empathy and a sprained and explained professionally and soberly that germany cannot accept anybody. Twitter then called her coldhearted when i thought that was her job. I thought the public exaggerated that. Allowed the 5, she trains from hungary to come in. Everyone overshot in the other direction and said shes bursting open the borders. She wasnt doing that either. I believe she was trying the whole time to walk a fine line and the public exaggerates everything that comes out of her mouth. I dont see inconsistency. Terry where does she stand now . Shes saying, the interior minister is right, we need to reinstate the dublin arrangement that requires refugees to be registered in the country where they first entered the European Union, which means germany could send refugees back. In practical terms, where do these refugees enter the European Union . It is in greece, the centerpiece of the other crisis we are having. Going to send them back to greece . Corinna they can only send back if they have been registered in these countries. Is, what we see there, a lot of politics going on. Signals to the cdu voters. Terry the question remains, which direction is she going to go . Theres been so much of a backlash now that we can almost say the boat is full. I think shes going to have to. I dont think she anticipated the rest of the eu would drop the ball. I think shes being forced by her party to make a slight retreat here. Knowing the way merkel does hese, things, she will make a uturn without you noticing. Shes not going to close the door on the refugees, but she probably going to push along with schaeuble and de maiziere to accept some of these bitter signalst least send that germany cannot take one million refugees for the next 10 years. They are all signals. Signals to the cdu, signals to the syrians, dont come here. But they are just signals. In numbers, this will not make a difference. The government admitted that they dont even have numbers anymore. But they will not be sending refugees back to greece. Terry unfortunately we are about out of time. I wanted to get your opinion, andre us is the refugee crisis chancellor merkels waterloo . Could this migration problem lead to the chancellors downfall . Andreas waterloo was a great moment for the british. I believe i have to say im very pessimistic for europe. I think europe is failing to deal with this. I think these various crises will come together with the refugee crisis and europe will fall apart. Do i think merkel personally will be ousted . I still think she will survive. Erik i think its very dangerous for merkel. It could be a problem for her if she doesnt get on top of it with her party. I dont think she will be kicked out or forced out anytime soon, but shes been around for 10 years now. I can imagine she might not make it to the 12th year. Let me push this one step further. If merkel is not looking endangered at this moment, what about the other members of her cabinet . Could we see a shuffle . Erik i would have thought that would have happened by now. If not, that shows shes a bit weaker than she was a week or two ago. Terry corinna, how do you see things playing out as we go forward . Statistics suggest that everybody wants to see chancellor merkel back in power. Even the opposition dont see an alternative at this point. Corinna it is an openended question, absolutely. Theres so many levels of international affairs, foreign policy. 2017 . Corinna it has become more difficult for her than a month ago to focus on 2017. It is more critical now. Terry we have to leave it there. I want to thank all of you for being with us on quadriga. Do check us out on the internet at dw. Com. Hope you will join us again next week. Cccu[acara6a6unn mosques typically have these tall spires you see on the side of the dome. They originally functioned as eliminated watchtowers. Their primary function now is a podium to call the faithful to prayer five times a day. The interesting things about the blue mosque in