Germany expects around 800,000 migrants to seek asylum there this year. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper last week that the German Constitution should be amended "within weeks" to speed up the process of granting asylum.
He said the current 50-percent constitutional cap on federal funding to states prevented the federal government from giving more assistance to the regions that were willing to take in refugees.
"The current crisis is not a crisis of migration, it is one of providing proper first reception infrastructure. So it is inconceivable how a change in the constitution would remedy that," Ernst told Sputnik.
The lawmaker praised the government’s handling of the situation with the Syrian refugees, who had been arriving in the country in tens of thousands since last Friday. At the same time, she but predicts a generally negative public response to the refugee inflow, despite the exceptionally warm welcome they have been given by volunteers.
Several refugee centers in Germany have been attacked in recent months as the country prepares to take in more migrants under EU’s distribution quotas.
The European Union's largest economy, Germany has pledged to accept the lion's share of the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe from war-torn regions in the Middle East and Africa in the hope of finding security.