Germany's opposition leader Merz under fire for vowing migration crackdown

Germany's opposition leader Friedrich Merz is under fire for vowing strict border controls if he is elected chancellor, with the frontrunner citing a deadly knife attack that was allegedly carried out by a rejected asylum seeker as justification for a migration overhaul.

Report informs via Euronews that the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Thursday presented a five-point migration plan calling for, among other things, a "de facto entry ban" for all people without valid documents and permanent control of all of Germany's borders.

Merz announced his plan a day after two people, including a 2-year-old boy, were killed and three others injured during an attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg.

The suspect, arrested shortly afterwards, is a 28-year-old Afghan with a history of psychiatric problems and violence who said over a month ago that he would leave Germany voluntarily.

Several politicians have criticised Merz's plan as legally contentious and impractical to implement — pointing out its incompatibility with migration and asylum laws and treaties such as the Geneva Convention and the EU's principle of free movement.

The Greens deputy leader in the Bundestag, Konstantin von Notz, described the measures as "neither constitutional nor European law compliant", local media reported.