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GERMANY - German Chancellor Angela Merkel was battling to save her coalition yesterday after Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced his intention to resign over a controversial migration policy, according to German media reports. Seehofer offered to quit as interior minister and as leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), during a marathon party meeting Sunday, but was later persuaded by CSU colleagues to meet with Merkel one more time and attempt to resolve the row, Reuters reported.
“In the interest of the country and the ability by the coalition to act, we want to try to find a way to unify on this central question: border control and refusal, only on this question”, Seehofer said early Monday. “And I hope that we can manage it. This is an act of goodwill on my part and another attempt to come to an agreement, otherwise this would have been it today.” Merkel was meeting with the CDU leadership Monday morning ahead of crunch talks between the two parties later in the day.
The CSU chief, who has repeatedly called for tougher policies on refugees, had given Merkel two weeks to reach an agreement with other European Union leaders that would allow German police to reject asylum seekers at the border who are already registered in another EU country. Under EU law, those people must be taken in and arrangements made on a case by case basis to send them back to the first country of entry. Seehofer had threatened to implement that policy unilaterally if Merkel could not reach a satisfactory deal by Sunday. Instead, he reportedly offered to step down, a move that could provide temporary respite for Merkel but that may spell the end for the decades-old CDU/CSU alliance and for the coalition government.
Leopold Traugott, policy analyst at think tank Open Europe, sees little hope for a compromise between the parties. “It’s unlikely Merkel will give the CSU more concessions”, he told CNN. “They have been pushing this issue too hard and too fast.”
The chancellor is in the strongest position, Traugott explains. “Her own party is really behind her. Now that the CSU is behaving more aggressively towards Merkel and the CDU, those normally critical have come to her support.”
Speaking to CNN Monday afternoon, Bavarian CSU interior minister Joachim Herrmann said that while his party’s goals on migration were far from being reached, the CSU was not looking to break with the CDU.
“I don’t want to speculate as to what the outcome will be today,” Hermann said. “What’s clear is that the CDU and CSU want to work together. We will need to find a common solution to the problem.”
Earlier in the day, Bavarian state premier Markus Soder also said he hoped for a compromise. “One thing is clear: the stability of the government is not a question for us,” Soder said, according to Reuters.
(CNN)