Merkel faces off with her allies
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel began a last-ditch meeting Monday with her rebellious Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to resolve a bitter row over immigration that threatens her government.
Seehofer, a vocal critic of Merkel’s open welcome to a mass influx of refugees and migrants three years ago, has threatened to resign as minister and as head of the conservative Bavarian CSU party unless they hammer out a compromise.
Seehofer quitting, or getting fired by the chancellor, could spark a cabinet walk-out of other ministers of his CSU, the traditional ally of Merkel’s CDU, which would end their alliance and imperil her fragile coalition government by destroying its parliamentary majority.
While both parties sought to de-escalate the crisis, Seehofer remained defiant until the last moment, pointing to his leadership of a party that had proved its ballot-box muscle in the past.
“I’m not going to let myself be fired by a chancellor who is only chancellor because of me,” he said shortly before the last-ditch meeting, in comments to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily.
Other parties and the media have slammed what they call a reckless game of chicken. Der Spiegel commented: “It is fair to ask: has the CSU lost its mind? In the end, the government could fall and an old, proud party could descend into ridiculousness.”
The head of the third party in Merkel’sfragilecoalitiongovernment, Social Democrats chief Andrea Nahles, condemned Seehofer’s “blackmail attempts” and charged that “the CSU is on a dangerous ego trip that is paralysing Germany and Europe”.
The deep government crisis stems from Merkel’s 2015 decision to keep borders open to asylum seekers arriving from the Middle East via the Balkans, Hungary and Austria.
The anti-refugee, anti-islam Alternative for Germany (AFD) entered parliament for the first time last year, leading to months of paralysis while Merkel struggled to put together a workable coalition. The simmering row has now come to the boil again as the CSU faces a new electoral threat from the far-right AFD in October state polls.
The flashpoint issue is Seehofer’s demand to order German border police to turn back asylum seekers already registered elsewhere in the EU, and his threat to do so against Merkel’s wishes.
Merkel rejects such unilateral measures and last week reached an Eu-level agreement instead thattoughensimmigrationrules, as well as several bilateral deals allowing Germany to turn back many migrants.