Please direct your complaints to my colleagueNOMINALLY they are allies. But Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria and boss of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), have been at loggerheads for months over the refugee crisis. Mr Seehofer demands fixed “upper limits” on the number of migrants that Germany admits. Mrs Merkel, given the 1.1m refugees who arrived in 2015, agrees that a “reduction” is desirable but rules out limits as unconstitutional. At an annual CSU gathering on January 6th-8th, Mr Seehofer expanded his attack. With Mrs Merkel present as an uncomfortable guest, he put a low-ball number on his “limit”: no more than 200,000 a year.
The refugee crisis strains not only Germany’s governing coalition (which also includes the centre-left Social Democrats) but also the “Union”, as the CDU and CSU are jointly called because they form one group in parliament. Yet their fight must be seen in context. The CSU has always been prone to elaborate displays of dissent—without which it would have...Continue reading
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