German Angela Merkel prevents the break-up of her government with the immigration agreement

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BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel averted the breakup of her government on Monday, emerging from an immigration battle with her intact but fragile coalition.

A clash that lasted weeks seemed to end with a truce on Monday. , Christian Democrats (CDU) found a compromise on German immigration policy with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, party leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), who had threatened to resign and overthrow the government with him. A radical position on immigration and criticism of Angela Merkel's decision to host close to one million migrants in 2015 are part of the CSU's political strategy before the regional elections of autumn

. "It will prove to be a stable lighthouse in a tumultuous sea," said Nils Diederich, professor of political science at the Free University of Berlin

but the internal turmoil worried her at a time when the Germany is counting on many more international challenges, particularly the growing transatlantic acrimony between Berlin and the Trump administration.

And the problems within his government are unlikely to disappear: The relations between the party of the Christian Democratic Union Merkel and his Bavarian sister are very tense. is now riveted by rival factions. This will make it difficult for her to return to Germany in the relatively stable state that she has known for a long time during her thirteen years in office

Merkel welcomed the compromise deal as a "that preserves the spirit of partnership in the European Union". and at the same time is a decisive step towards the organization and control of secondary migration. "

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves the Bundestag (Lower House of Parliament) in Berlin after a meeting of the conservative CDU / CSU parliamentary group on July 2. 2018. (Omer Messinger / AFP / Getty Images)

For his part, Mr Seehofer said: "I am pleased that this agreement has been concluded. It's once again become clear that it's worth fighting for a conviction. And the following is a very durable and clear agreement for the future. "

The two leaders found a compromise in three parts, the text of which was published Monday evening.

On the Austrian-German border, It will now be a new process of selection which "will prevent asylum seekers whose asylum procedures are the responsibility of other EU countries to enter the country." A network of "centers of asylum" transit will be put in place, ineligible migrants will then be returned to the countries concerned, but only if these countries agree, and if these original countries do not agree, the migrants who are rejected by the Germany will be sent to Austria "on the basis of an agreement."

It is not immediately clear to what extent the Austrian right-wing government opposes the European migratory wave

Diederich noted that the motivation of the UHC to precipitate the crisis probably came from its interest in Sser the far-right anti-immigrant alternative for Germany (AfD) during the October elections.

The far right is back in the Reichstag, with taunts and insults]

"What's happening now has nothing to do with the content," Diederich said. "This strategy has not been successful, according to recent polls in Bavaria, which show a 1.9% decline in support for the CDU / CSU coalition, compared to 2.4%

Monday morning, there were already signs that some CSU officials regretted that their colleagues had jeopardized national cohesion for a re-election strategy that did not seem to be bearing fruit.

Markus Söder, Bavarian Prime Minister – as well as the Seehofer's rival – told reporters on Monday that he was "very surprised" at Seehofer's offer to leave his ministerial post. Söder suggested that the party would be better served by finding a compromise rather than breaking the coalition. "One thing is very clear: the stability of the government is not an issue for us," he told the German media Monday. "We can achieve a lot within a government, but not outside of it. "

The real The winner of the last stalemate, however, could well be the AfD. Its leaders actively frame the fight between Seehofer and Merkel as a confirmation of their long-held criticisms of an opportunist and interested political establishment. The party's harsh anti-migrant positions, once banned from public discourse, have now entered the conservative mainstream.

"It's an self-legitimation process that's happening in the establishment," said political scientist Michael Koß. at the University of Munich, referring to the upsurge within the coalition. "The AfD has always claimed from the outside that the politicians of the establishment were only for their own good, and I must say that I agree."

AFD was quick to attack the Seehofer drama on Monday morning. Seehofer and CSU have staged a miserable and slimy theater, "wrote Alice Weidel, head of the AfD, in a statement posted on Facebook." The round trips and the resignation of the minister's resignation the Interior were simply staged. "

She then reiterated the anti-migrant position of the party that has so far worked so well for it." The AfD is the only power who can control this asylum chaos. "

In fact, the number of asylum seekers in Germany has dropped dramatically compared to pre-2015 levels, partly due to more restrictive of Merkel in recent years.

[Migrants say these mbad shelters are like prisons. Germany wants to build more.]

Remains to be seen if the AfD can continue to take advantage of the coalition crisis, but what seems most certain, it is that trying to recover the voters of the AfD and defy Merkel, Seehofer miscalculated his hand.In the past, Merkel, who has been the chancellor of Germany since 2005, has often thwarted her opponents by baduming their positions, but on migration she can not do it to the same extent. Although some members of the political left have criticized her for making too much concessions on the issue, Merkel has also categorically refused to qualify the 2015 influx of migrants or adopt the same anti-rhetoric. -immigrated by his harder allies. "She is in the last phase of her political career, she wants to be considered a great European, or as the honorable grandson of Helmut Kohl," said Werner Weidenfeld, a German political scientist

"That's why this political debate has another dimension," he said. Witte in Washington contributed to this report