In Germany, Merkel saves her government but is weakened

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has managed to save her government by agreeing to permanently give up her generous migration policy, but this respite could only be short-lived. "The climate in a coalition government has probably never been as poisoned as in this one" commented Tuesday, July 3 the daily Bild the most read in Germany, after the forceps obtained the day before between the chancellor and her rebel interior minister, who demanded a sharp reduction in the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country.

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                Imbroglio in Germany about the "resignation" of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer
    

The conservative leader has been the subject of an unprecedented challenge from within her team. It will have, after almost thirteen years in power, redoubled its efforts to restore its authority and consolidate the fragile coalition government, difficult to implement in March, between his center-right party CDU, the Bavarian right CSU and social Democrats:

SPD Social Democrat President Andrea Nahles hailed the end of hostilities in the conservative camp, Aziz Bozkurt, one of the experts on migration issues in his party, lashed out "totally in the sense" of the extreme right

If the SPD were to reject this compromise, all Angela Merkel's efforts to save her government would be called into question. A summit meeting of the three parties of the coalition is scheduled for Tuesday at 4 pm

A privileged target

M ^me Merkel remains a privileged target for the hardest conservative currents, including within his own political family. At issue is its decision in 2015 to open Germany to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.

At the head of the rebels: the president of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, whom the Chancellor hoped to be able to keep under control by appointing him Minister of the Interior. But he is worried for his party, which may lose its absolute majority in regional elections in autumn due to the expected breakthrough of the far right.

If so, hostilities against Angela Merkel, accused of leading a policy too centrist, will leave again. Because the sling of the CSU was also aimed personally, many media seeing an attempt to "putsch" of his right wing.

"Internment camps"

Monday evening, Chancellor had to yield a lot of ground by accepting strong restrictions on immigration. One of the relatives of the Minister of the Interior, Markus Blume, has also spoken of a "turning point of asylum policy" German.

In practice, asylum seekers arriving in Germany but already registered in another EU country – that is to say the vast majority of them – will be placed in "transit centers" on the border with Germany. Austria pending their return to the country of entry

Bernd Riexinger, a leader of the radical left, spoke of "mbad internment camps" in a reference to the Nazi past of Germany. He asked the SPD to reject this compromise

In principle, migrant removals should be done in agreement with the countries of entry and not unilaterally. If agreements can not be found, however, it is planned to force the migrants back to Austria. It remains to be seen what Vienna will think about it.

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                The Austrian Kurz, a "bridge" between right and extreme right
    

The Austrian far-right and conservative government, which has just taken over the EU's rotating presidency, has already warned that in such a case it would take identical measures at its own borders. With the risk of a domino effect in Europe