The situation in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition is extremely tense, the leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) Andrea Nahles said yesterday, leaving open the question of a possible new election.
After four hours of talks late on Tuesday with Merkel and her conservative Bavarian allies which failed to resolve a row on migrant policy that threatens the coalition, Nahles, said: "In all questions, including in migrant policy, we have a very tense situation in the coalition ...It is unsatisfactory that this week we have standstill and it is unclear what will happen," as reported by Reuters. Asked if she was preparing for a new election, she said: "I don't know. To be honest with you, we are waiting to see."
The CSU has given Merkel until the end of this week's EU summit to agree migrant policies with EU partners that will reduce the burden on Germany - a tall order given how deeply divided Europe is on how to deal with the influx of migrants.
"From the next week we want migrants to be rejected at the border if they have already registered in another European country and should therefore go through the asylum procedure there," Alexander Dobrindt, a senior CSU lawmaker, said.
The open challenge against Merkel is led by CSU boss and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who has cultivated ties with anti-immigration hardliners in Austria, Hungary and Italy.
Seehofer has threatened to defy Merkel and order border police from next week to turn back asylum seekers already registered in other EU countries, unless Merkel reaches an agreement on how to handle them with other member states.
Such open defiance would give Merkel little choice but to fire Seehofer, likely sparking a split between her CDU and the CSU that would cost the chancellor the wafer-thin governing majority she stitched together after a much weaker than expected performance in September elections. Merkel's worst crisis yet stems from her mid-2015 decision to keep open German borders to a mass influx of mostly Muslim asylum seekers fleeing war and misery in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The arrival of more than one million migrants sparked the backlash that drove the rise of the anti-Islam AfD, at the expense of all mainstream parties including Merkel's CDU.
Even though arrivals have fallen sharply since then, the CSU has adopted its harsher stance as it panics about the AfD destroying its governing majority in Bavaria in October elections. The crisis will either be defused or reach an ugly finale in coming days, which Bild and other media have dubbed the "Endgame".
Recent polls have offered Merkel a glimmer of hope, suggesting that the CSU's brinkmanship is not playing well with voters who abhor the chaos and instability it has created. But whether Seehofer will pull back from the precipice is a big unknown, and all scenarios seem possible.
