Dispute between CDU and CSU: "We stay together"

In the group's asylum policy conflict, the will of the group outweighs the desire to reach an agreement. Group leader Kauder was optimistic that Merkel and Seehofer were finding a solution. The two are already together – first with the president of the Bundestag Schäuble

The faction of the Bundestag of the CDU and the CSU met and discussed the serious crisis in the relations between the two brothers parties. But the one who had decisively triggered this crisis and aggravated by his confusing withdrawal offer was no longer there: the CSU boss, Horst Seehofer, was still in the car en route to Berlin.

did not come to the group meeting. On Monday, Alexander Dobrindt, head of the CSU national group, sat in Chancellor Angela Merkel's seat on the group's council

Before the crisis, a crisis meeting

The deputies of the Bundestag saw their mandate considerably reduced: Seehofer, Merkel and those who are at the crisis meeting at 5 pm to reach an agreement. But the meeting is preceded by another: Seehofer has now arrived in Berlin – and he already sits after media reports with Chancellor Merkel and Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble. Also in this conversation in the office Schaeuble should go to find ways to resolve the dispute.

CSU group leader Alexander Dobrindt believes that such an agreement is achievable. "A community of fate only proves its value when it is challenged," he said, according to participants at the Union faction meeting. The faction community has had many ups and downs. "These 70 years have created a strong bond, which can also have the power to exist and to dominate a conflict over a factual problem solved."

The Union faction leader, Volker Kauder, was optimistic. He expected that he would come in the evening to a solution, Kauder said, according to participants. "We are staying together," said the CDU politician, according to statements, with regard to the faction community of the CDU and the CSU and received minutes of applause for it. "It will be important to reconcile everything now." However, the situation was tense.

Merkel himself said that "the desire to solve this problem is great," participants said. She therefore pointed out that she herself had spoken of a fateful community of the CDU and the CSU. It was worth every effort to reach an agreement.

In terms of content, she again defended European decisions on refugee policy. It has been difficult to bring Member States to a document on the issue of migration, especially as EU countries have been affected differently. Good results were obtained

Another evening consultation

The duration of the crisis meeting is uncertain. The schedule, however, provides that at 10 pm, the joint coalition committee should meet with the SPD. And as a coalition partner, they must also approve a possible compromise between the Union – if there really is one.

It is only on the weekend that Merkel rejected a Seehofer proposal on the issue of refusal of refugees at the border. Clarity about the continuing existence of the government and the future of Seehofer as Minister of the Interior and CSU leader will therefore exist at the earliest in the late evening – if at all