German coalition collapse threat after talks fail to solve migrant row

Aurore Belot | AFP | Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference at the end of EU Eastern Partnership summit at the European Council in Brussels on Nov. 24, 2017.

The threat of collapse still loomed over Germany’s three-month old coalition government on Wednesday after crisis talks into the early hours failed to resolve a row over immigration between Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Bavarian allies.

The dispute is over plans drawn up by Merkel’s interior minister Horst Seehofer, the head of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), to send back migrants who have registered in other EU states at the German border.

This is anathema to the usually flexible Merkel as it would undermine her open-door migrant policy and be a major setback to the EU’s Schengen free border system.

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 CSU meet on Sunday to decide whether to defy Merkel and introduce the new controls. The party wants Merkel to get a European deal, or at least bilateral deals with countries like Greece and Italy, saying nothing was to be gained by delaying action.

“I do not understand talking about possible future solutions for Europe while not being prepared to do what Germany can do now,” Dobrindt, a CSU hardliner, told German television.

If Seehofer goes ahead with his plans, many members of Merkel’s CDU say she would be forced to fire him.