German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been called on to make specific proposals on migration ahead of a meeting next week between the federal government and the premiers of Germany's 16 states.
"This is the last opportunity for the chancellor to show that he really will make proposals for effective control and order with respect to the migration issue," the premier of the industrial heartland state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, told journalists on Thursday.
The conservative politician was speaking just days after anti-migration parties made strong gains in Sunday's European elections, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany. The three parties in Scholz's centre-left coalition performed poorly, managing together less than a third of the vote.
"We have to put a stop to irregular migration," Wüst said in the state capital Dusseldorf, calling for plans for asylum procedures outside the European Union to be speeded up.
Wüst said he expected expert reports resulting from an exchange between the federal and state governments to be presented at the June 20 ministers' conference. "We really need a line from the federal government on this issue," he said.
While the federal government sets asylum policy, the states and local authorities provide the accommodation and services.
A recent fatal knife attack by an Afghan migrant on a German police officer has caused public outrage and debate within Scholz's three-party coalition over whether Afghanistan should be declared safe for deporting rejected asylum seekers to.
Migration is set to be a key issue in parliamentary elections to be held by the autumn of next year, with Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) lagging badly in the polls behind the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
North Rhine-Westphalia is Germany's most populous state, and Wüst is seen as a potential CDU candidate for chancellor.
