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AFP
Meseberg, Germany
FRANCE'S Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday jumped to the aid of his core European partner, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is under mounting domestic pressure over the divisive issue of immigration.
The French president said Paris and Berlin agreed that EU countries must be able to turn back at their borders all asylum seekers who previously registered in another member country, usually their Mediterranean first port of call.
Merkel is under heavy pressure at home to quickly ink deals with heavily-burdened EU frontline states like Italy and Greece -- or risk a political crisis that could topple her government.
After allowing in more than one million asylum seekers into Germany since 2015, sparking a strong xenophobic backlash, Merkel is now fighting for her political future.
Her hardline interior minister Horst Seehofer on Monday gave her a two-week ultimatum to reach such deals, threatening he would otherwise defy her and shutter German borders to these migrants, a move that would likely end their coalition.
Macron -- who has passionately called for bold EU reforms as his answer to populist, rightwing and eurosceptic forces -- has been at pains to work closely with Merkel, veteran leader of the bloc's biggest economy.
Backing Merkel, he said France and Germany would seek agreements to ensure newcomers whose details were already in EU databases"can be taken back as quickly as possible to the country where they were registered".
