Turkey frees pastor after crisis with US
A Turkish court yesterday freed an American pastor held for the last two years, in a case that sparked a crisis in Turkey’s ties with the United States and trouble for its economy. The court in the western town of Aliaga convicted Andrew Brunson on terror-related charges and sentenced him to three years, one month and 15 days in jail. However, he was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial.
Chancellor evasive on whether Bavarian poll could impact her government, while political veteran says ‘Everything must end’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s sister party, the arch-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), counted Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz among its supporters in a Munich beer hall yesterday at a final campaign event ahead of Bavaria’s fateful state election.
Kurz was joined by CSU chief and German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, and Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder at the rally, which aimed to bolster voter support before tomorrow’s election.
Kurz has been an ally to the CSU in its campaign to tighten controls at the border between Austria and Bavaria – Germany’s southernmost state.
He has also supported Seehofer in his push for stricter immigration policies at the national level.
A poll released on Thursday showed voter support for the CSU – which held an absolute majority in Bavaria for decades – falling below 33%, with the environmentalist Greens coming in second with 18.5%.
However, Seehofer dismissed the polls during the rally, saying that he is “quite a bit more confident” about the party’s success than the polls have been.
Seehofer’s hardline stance on immigration brought the alliance of his CSU and Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to the brink of collapse earlier this year, so the Bavarian poll is seen by many as a referendum on Seehofer’s contentious role in national politics.
Yesterday, when asked whether this could destabilise her coalition – which is made up of her conservative CDU, the CSU and the centre-left SPD – Merkel said: “I can only say that I am hoping for a good result for the CSU.”
“I am aware that we are living in difficult times – other than that, I am waiting for the result,” she said.
The CSU’s decline comes amid a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which, according to the Civey poll, is set to capture 12.8% of the vote in Bavaria.
A lower vote share for the CSU is likely to force the party to seek a coalition partner for the first time.
Though a majority of Bavarians have expressed as their preference a CSU-Greens coalition, Soeder all but ruled out that option yesterday.
Meanwhile, German political veteran Wolfgang Schaeuble commented on the muchdebated topic of Merkel’s succession in an interview released yesterday, saying that “it’s part of human nature that everything must end – at a certain point, fatigue sets in”.
In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Schaeuble – who has been a lawmaker since 1972 and is currently the head of the Bundestag – said that it is unlikely that Merkel would step down before the end of her term in 2021, but that the chancellor is known for keeping her “options open”.
“Sooner or later the succession problem will arise,” said Schaeuble, arguably bestknown for his role as a hawkish finance minister during the Greek debt crisis. “Merkel’s style – she says it herself – is to take decisions as late as possible. She keeps many options open.”
He referred to a childhood experience often cited by Merkel during which she waited on a swimming pool diving board until the last moment before taking the plunge.
“But she jumped – when she felt ready. She will not take a decision before it is due,” Schaeuble said.
Merkel, whose political capital is depleted after her party lost support in the September 2017 election, is in her fourth term in office.
She has come under fire and faced calls to step down over her decision in 2015 to open Germany’s borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants.
“There were many good reasons for and few alternatives to that decision to open the border,” said Schaeuble. “The problem is that we did not manage to counter the wrong message that spread around the world, that Germany was open to all.”
Schaeuble, who lived through an assassination attempt in 1990 that left him paralysed from the waist down, also addressed the challenge that Merkel is facing from the far-right AfD.
“We are still a stable country, by international standards,” Schaeuble said in the interview. “But it is true that in the US and Europe the rule of law and democracy are under pressure, as are traditional parties.”