Germany should copy Britain's Rwanda policy for migrants, says leader of Angela Merkel's CDU party as he insists Berlin and Brussels are partly to blame for Brexit for refusing to offer more concessions

Germany should copy Britain's Rwanda policy in order to deter asylum seekers from Europe, the current leader of Angela Merkel's CDU party has said. 

Friedrich Merz, who has been at the helm of the Christian Democrats Union (CDU) since 2022, said he was 'firmly convinced' that the controversial policy would work adding that Germany ought to 'emulate' it as it would be 'a signal that we're just not going to accept everybody here.'

He told the FT: 'The mere prospect that you won't end up in the promised land of Germany, and that you'll have to apply for asylum in a third country — say Albania, if you're trying to get into Italy, or Rwanda if you're aiming for the UK — will reduce the number of asylum seekers.'

In another sign of deference to the UK, Merz also admitted that Brussels and Berlin were partly to blame for Brexit, as they failed to offer David Cameron, then prime minister of the UK, any meaningful reforms to the EU in the leadup to the 2016 referendum.

'I remember that David Cameron asked for changes to EU social policy and came back to London empty-handed.

'The continental Europeans were not entirely blameless when it came to Brexit,' he said, adding: 

'We lost patience with the special role that Britain always played in European politics. We didn't do enough to help them come to a different referendum result.'

Despite recent frictions, Merz said he was keen for the UK and Germany to forge a closer relationship. 

'We have a plethora of opportunities, at least in foreign and defence policy, that we should explore together. 

'We Germans have a huge strategic interest in keeping the UK closely engaged in Europe.' 

Merz's party has held a comfortable lead in the polls since at least August 2022. 

Though there was a small spike in Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing party, support for the populists have been falling since January 2024. 

Aggregated poll data from Politico shows the CDU is currently 12 points ahead of AfD. 

The CDU is set to endorse a new party programme soon, the first time it has done so since 2007.

'We are a conservative party again. The CDU was always Christian-social, liberal and conservative at the same time. But we recently hid away the conservative part, rather shamefacedly. Now we’re saying [it] out loud.'

Despite this, he rejected his critics' idea that he was departing from Angela Merkel's well-known centrist stance, claiming the new programme was 'a commitment to the basic values and principles that sustained us through more than 50 years of governing postwar Germany.'