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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Hungary's Orban, Germany's Kohl say EU ability to absorb migrants limited

[Child lies on the ground as women and children queue for tea at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni]By Frank Simon OGGERSHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a fierce critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy, and her ex-mentor Helmut Kohl agreed on Tuesday it was questionable whether Europe could continue to absorb migrants indefinitely.  Orban and Kohl issued a joint statement after the right-wing Hungarian leader paid a rare private visit to the 86-year-old Kohl, architect of Germany's 1990 reunification and a major driver of European integration in the 1990s. Orban's meeting with Kohl, 86, who makes only rare public appearances and is largely wheelchair bound, stoked speculation that it was meant as a snub to Merkel and that Germany's foremost elder statesman disagrees with her course.  Trying to play down talk of any such rift, the Kohl-Orban statement said they and Merkel shared the overall objective of alleviating the humanitarian emergency represented by migrants but signalled differences over how to tackle the challenge.  "There is complete agreement on the goal," the two said in the statement issued by Kohl's office after the hour-long Orban visit to the conservative Christian Democrat's longtime home in Oggersheim near the Rhine river in southwestern Germany.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT uk.news.yahoo.com