German chancellor Angela Merkel has promised to shut down Turkey's EU accession talks and defended her open-door refugee policy.
Merkel made the Turkey pledge in a pre-election TV debate with her main rival, former European Parliament head Martin Schulz, on Sunday (3 September).
"The fact is clear that Turkey should not become a member of the EU," she said.
"I'll speak to my [EU] colleagues to see if we can reach a joint position on this so that we can end these accession...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.