Merkel coalition’s fate hangs in balance over elusive migrant deal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition risked breaking apart Monday, as her hard-line conservative Bavarian allies pushed a showdown over migrant policy after she was unmoved by her interior minister’s threat to resign.

Horst Seehofer insisted on his plan to turn away asylum seekers at the border with Austria registered in other European countries, as he rejected EU deals reached last week by Merkel as inadequate.

“I said that I would vacate both my offices (as federal interior minister and CSU party chief) in the next three days,” Seehofer told reporters in Munich after talks with his party stretching into the small hours.

But soon after, Seehofer said he would hold last-ditch talks with Merkel’s CDU “in hopes of reaching an understanding”. The meeting is set to begin at 1500 GMT.

Seehofer had earlier complained he had “no support” over his plan to shut Germany’s doors. Other CSU bosses, however, refused to accept his departure and kept strategy talks going.

The future of Merkel’s governing coalition between the CDU-CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) appeared to hang by a thread, as media slammed what they called a reckless game of chicken.

“It is fair to ask: has the CSU lost its mind?” Der Spiegel reporter Rene Pfister asked.

“In the end government could fall and an old, proud party could descend into ridiculousness — and all of that to solve a problem that in reality hardly is one” given the dramatically lower numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Germany this year.

If Merkel holds firm and Seehofer does quit, the CSU could offer a replacement interior minister if it aims to remain tied to her party.

Alternatively it could break up the two parties’ seven-decade-long partnership, depriving Merkel of her majority in parliament and pitching Germany into uncharted political waters.

To politically survive, Merkel could attempt a minority government, seek a new coalition partner in the ecologist Greens or pro-business Free Democrats, or orchestrate a no-confidence vote in parliament that could trigger new elections.

As he entered a CDU crisis meeting Monday, party deputy leader Armin Laschet insisted that the sister parties “want to hold onto” their alliance.

“It is a precious thing for our party system and that is why I’m confident that we will succeed,” he said.

CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said earlier that party leaders were “united” behind Merkel and “effective, humane solutions together with our European partners”.

Merkel, who has been in office since 2005, warned last week the battle over migration could decide the EU’s future.

After the Bavarians’ relentless pressure on her, European leaders agreed new measures Friday to reduce immigration and so-called “secondary migration” of asylum-seekers between countries.

Merkel also proposed that migrants arriving in Germany who first registered in another EU country should be placed in special “admission centres” under restrictive conditions.

A document she sent to the CSU and SPD also outlined deals with 16 other countries to return already-registered migrants if they reached Germany.

However, Seehofer rejected Merkel’s assessment that the EU-wide measures would “have the same effect” as his demand to turn away migrants registered elsewhere in the bloc.

As the CDU and CSU parties hunkered down in Berlin and Munich, a compromise appeared ever more elusive.

“It’s not about who comes out on top, but about what’s right,” Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder told the CSU gathering.