Merkel on the brink over border crisis

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is refusing to back down over a migrant crisis that could end her long reign and send shockwaves across Europe.

The Continent’s longest-serving leader is fighting for her political life after her interior minister Horst Seehofer insisted border police turn back asylum seekers from tomorrow, ending a policy that has admitted more than a million migrants since 2015.

Embattled Merkel must now decide whether to fire Seehofer – a move likely to bring down her coalition government – or abandon her controversial openborder migration policy which is opposed by most Germans.

Meanwhile, 629 migrants on the charity ship Aquarius are today expected to arrive in Valencia after Italy turned them away.

Merkel and Italian president Giuseppe Conte are due to meet at a summit in Berlin tomorrow.