How refugees would be resettled within Germany led to a new round of strain last week within Merkel’s once unshakeable coalition government.

On Friday, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said refugees would only be given restricted asylum, in the form of a one-year renewable residence permit, and would not be allowed to bring relatives to Germany for two years. Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, made it clear that the plan had not been run by the chancellor before de Maizière announced it.

Members of Merkel’s sister party, Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union, said they backed de Maizière’s plan. Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer told Sueddeutsche Zeitung that Germany should review the “refugee status of every Syrian carefully” and check whether they personally faced persecution. Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s finance minister, also said he backed the interior minister. Some 758,000 refugees and other migrants arrived in Germany between January and October.

“Our capacity to take in [people] is not unlimited; and because of that it is a necessary measure that we examine cases individually and for it to be clear in Syria that not everyone can now come to Germany,” Schaeuble told German television.