GETTY Merkel's party are launching a plan to clamp down on illegal activity

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Delegates at Mrs Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party conference in Essen, west Germany today and slammed migrants engaging in illegal activity citing forced marriage and honour killings as major problems. The address comes after the chancellor confirmed she will seek a fourth term in office amid heavy criticism over her open door borders policy. Now her party has adopted a slogan "Our values. Our future" after debating a resolution on tackling forced marriage and honour killings in the country. Yesterday during an address Mrs Merkel called for a ban on full-face Muslim veils "wherever legally possible".

Forced marriage and honour killings must be prevented and prosecuted rigorously The CDU

Today the party debated on the issue of: "Forced marriage and honour killings" insisting they "must be prevented and prosecuted rigorously," indicating for the first time that there has been a rise in criminal activity. The interior and justice ministries could not immediately give figures on any forced marriages or honour killings among the record 890,000 people from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere who arrived in Germany last year.

GETTY Angela Merkel's party is announcing new plans to combat criminal activity

Ahead of next year's federal election, the CDU is trying to mend fences with its Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which is tougher on immigration, to try to claw back support lost to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Jens Spahn, a deputy finance minister and senior CDU member, told Deutschlandfunk radio that some of the migrants who have arrived in Germany were young men with "very repressed sexual morality" and a "strange view of women". His comments touched on popular concerns about integrating migrants. This week, German police detained an Iraqi migrant for suspected rape only days after an Afghan refugee was held in a separate rape and murder case.

The two cases threaten to fan anti-migrant sentiment in Germany, which has seen support grow for the anti-immigrant AfD while Merkel's popularity has suffered. In a sign of how Germany's "Willkommenskultur", or welcoming culture, has faded since migrants arrived last year, Spahn called for legal barriers to be lowered to facilitate the deportation of migrants who do not qualify to stay in Germany. "Those who are not refugees, who are not fleeing from Iraq or Syria from war and persecution, must return to their homelands - and that needs to be done consistently," he said.

GETTY Mrs Merkel's party has been voting on a number of issues

An Emnid poll on Sunday showed support for the CDU and the CSU at a 10-month high of 37 percent, 15 points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). Merkel was re-elected chairwoman of the CDU by 89.5 percent of the delegates present on Tuesday, down from 96.7 percent two years ago. Mass-selling daily newspaper Bild dubbed the winning margin "Merkel's little victory". Her lowest winning score in election as chairwoman was 88.4 percent in 2004. Last month it Mrs Merkel's own party called for a coalition with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a bid to hold onto power. Politicians from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fear they could lose their grip on control of the country and one prominent member has now called on an alliance between the parties.

Angela Merkel in pictures Tue, August 8, 2017 Angela Merkel has served as German Chancellor since 2005 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000. We take a look at her political career in pictures. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 83 Angela Merkel through the years