BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel's most prominent domestic critic on migrant policy is sticking to his demand for a cap on newcomers at the beginning of an election year in which Merkel will seek a fourth term.

Horst Seehofer, who leads the Christian Social Union — the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union — has been demanding for a year an annual limit of 200,000 on new migrants to Germany. Merkel opposes the idea.

Seehofer suggested recently that his party wouldn't join the next government without a cap. He said Wednesday that "we mean this demand very seriously."

He said his party doesn't need "public lectures" but downplayed tensions with Merkel's CDU, adding: "We have to discuss some things, then we will go into the election campaign together."