No resolution to German govt crisis over migrant plans

BERLIN: A resolution to Germany’s government crisis proved elusive after the head of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union in Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc offered his resignation rather than back down from his stance against the chancellor’s migration policies.

A nearly eight-hour meeting of the CSU in Munich was put on hold after the party’s leader, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, made his offer to resign both from Merkel’s Cabinet and as head of the CSU.

After further talks with a smaller group of CSU officials seeking to change his mind, Seehofer said he had agreed to meet again with Merkel’s party before he made his decision final.

“We’ll have more talks today with the CDU in Berlin with the hope that we can come to an agreement,” Seehofer said just before 2am yesterday. “After that, then we will see.”

Officials of Merkel’s Christian Democrat party broke off their own separate meeting in Berlin about an hour earlier, saying they would resume at 8.30am.

If Seehofer does step down, it is not immediately clear what effect the move would have on a threeweek impasse between Merkel and her CSU partners, which has cen- tred on his resolve to turn away some types of asylum-seekers at Germany’s borders.

Merkel has insisted on Europewide solutions to handling the waves of foreigners trying to reach the continent and the standoff could spell the end of her fourth government.

Merkel maintained earlier on Sunday that a plan to regulate immigration that European Union leaders approved on Friday and other agreements she hashed out with several key countries would accomplish what Seehofer seeks.

“The sum total of everything we have agreed upon has the same effect” as what Seehofer has demanded, Merkel said in an interview with ZDF television.

“That is my personal opinion. The CSU must naturally decide that for itself.”