PM: German Chancellor could not have expected to change Czech policy on migrant crisis

Chancellor Merkel could not realistically have expected to change the Czech Republic’s stand on the issue of migration, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said in reaction to the coverage of Thursday’s visit by the German media. The German papers reported that Chancellor Merkel had failed to win over the Czechs on the issue of migration. The Czech prime minister, who on Thursday reiterated his government’s stand that a permanent redistribution mechanism for migrants was totally unacceptable, said the German head of government was familiar not only with the Czech Republic’s stand on the issue, but with that of the Visegrad Four states who are united in their opposition to mandatory migrant quotas. Sobotka said the goal of the visit was not to persuade the country to change its policy on migration, but to push ahead with a debate on the future of the EU after Brexit and discuss a number of bilateral projects.