Merkel critic won't 'sell soul' in dispute over refugee cap

German chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech at the meeting of her Christian Democrats' Youth Organization. JU, in Paderborn, Germany, Saturday Oct. 15, 2016. Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany needs to make a “national effort” to ensure that migrants who are refused asylum leave the country. Germany has seen a steep decline this year in the number of asylum-seekers arriving after 890,000 came last year. The government says some 213,000 newcomers arrived in this year’s first nine months. ( Guido Kirchner/dpa via AP) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2011 file picture Bavarian State Governor and Chairman of German Christian Social Union party, CSU, Horst Seehofer, looks on during a party convention in Nuremberg, southern Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's most prominent domestic critic in the migrant crisis told Sunday's Oct. 16, 2016 Bild am Sonntag he won't "sell the soul" of his conservative party in a dispute over his demand for a cap on the number of refugees that Germany accepts. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader,file) (The Associated Press)

BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel's most prominent domestic critic in the migrant crisis says he won't "sell the soul" of his conservative party in a dispute over his demand for a cap on the number of refugees that Germany accepts.

Horst Seehofer is Bavaria's governor and the leader of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian arm of Merkel's Union bloc. Seehofer has long criticized Merkel's welcoming approach to migrants last year and is pressing for an annual refugee cap in Germany of 200,000 — a call Merkel and allies so far have rejected.

A national election is expected next September. Seehofer told Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper that he hopes to resolve the dispute this month — but "I won't give up this core element just so that there is harmony."