Politics

Longtime Merkel critic resigns from CDU over migrants

Steinbach, who is the Christian Democrats Union's (CDU's) human rights spokesperson, has stepped down from the party, she revealed in an interview with a German newspaper on Saturday.

The 73-year-old has fallen out several times with Chancellor Angela Merkel over the German leader's "open door" policy towards migrants, which saw nearly 1.2 million new migrants reach the country over two years.

Steinbach, who represents the CDU in one of two constituencies for the city of Frankfurt am Main, said that allowing so many people into Germany for months without identifying them properly went "against our laws and against EU treaties."

"Would I vote CDU at the moment? No. Would I join the CDU today? No. I can only draw the honest conclusion of leaving the CDU," she told "Welt Am Sonntag" (WaS) newspaper.

Ministers 'encouraged influx'

Steinbach went further, accusing the government of deliberately promoting illegal migration.