Merkel battles for compromise with allies on migrant policy

German Chancellor Angela Merkel struggled on Thursday to find a compromise on migrant policy with her rebelling Bavarian allies, hoping to avert a crisis in her coalition just three months after it took power.

Merkel’s authority and the future of her alliance with Bavarian conservatives and Social Democrats are at stake at a time when divisions within Europe have come to a head over a ship carrying migrants that was refused entry to Italy.

The showdown with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) is over his Masterplan for Migration, a blueprint in which he wants to show voters a new tough line before a difficult Bavarian election in October.

There was no immediate deal in sight after a “crisis meeting” on Thursday night. Parliamentarians from the CSU and Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), which form a parliamentary bloc, held separate gatherings in a sign of the depth of the row.

The Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper quoted an unnamed senior CSU MP as saying the Bavarian party was considering leaving the parliamentary bloc.

Sources said many CDU MPs had backed a compromise proposal made by the chancellor.

However, CDU Health Minister and longtime Merkel critic Jens Spahn did not wholeheartedly support her idea and asked for MPs to be consulted, Spiegel Online reported.

Merkel objects to part of Seehofer’s plan, which allows German authorities to reject migrants who reach German borders, drawn by the country’s prosperity and stability, if they have already registered in other EU states to the south.

This would represent a reversal of her open-door policy for migrants from 2015, which has already been scaled back. She argues that doing this could result in other countries following suit.

The open-door policy has been widely blamed for a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany and its entry to parliament after elections in September.