Angela Merkel deflects coalition crisis with compromise

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel halted the immediate threat of a government breakup in Europe’s biggest economy, crafting a plan to tighten migration and keep her Bavarian sister party in the fold.

The euro rose after Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, her antagonist who had threatened to resign, ended their two-week standoff late Monday. While the compromise averts a split of the two-party bloc that’s governed Germany for most of the time since World War II, its success could well depend on factors beyond Merkel’s control and it may prove only to be a temporary solution.

“This provides a break, but it’s not the end of the infighting,” said Carsten Nickel, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence in London. The conflict’s political driving forces, including a state election in Bavaria in October, “will remain with us for months to come,” he said.


Merkel and Seehofer, who heads Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union, pulled back from the brink as they risked a coalition split that could have unraveled Merkel’s chancellorship after almost 13 years. Seehofer is staying on as interior minister, a post that gives him federal border enforcement powers.

“After a tough struggle and some difficult days, we’ve found a really good compromise,” said Merkel, who heads the Christian Democratic Union. Merkel’s deal calls for setting up holding centers at the German border for refugees already registered in other European Union countries.