Resignation resigned: At one o'clock in the morning Seehofer plays the role back – and chaos perfectly

N After an eight-hour meeting, Horst Seehofer was serious. He offered resignation – as Minister of the Interior and as president of the CSU. The scandal in the EU dispute over asylum and refugee policies was perfect. The CSU leader has thrown everything into the quarrel with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), which he has. At the World Cup, Denmark and Croatia delivered an eleven-meter thriller, surprised the head of the CSU, his executive and the national group.

Party friends were shocked. Alexander Dobrindt found, according to participants, apparently the fastest version back. He contradicted Seehofer, who initially offered his resignation in his closing remarks, but then confirmed that he would actually resign. The intervention of Dobrindt prevented the immediate creation of accomplished facts. The meeting in CSU Landleitung was interrupted. Seehofer and the nearest management circle went – in addition to Dobrindt, the general secretary Markus Blume, his badistant Daniela Ludwig – in the meeting room "excellent location" on the first floor of the party headquarters.

Shortly after, former Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber rushed. Meanwhile, Seehofer's step was discussed in the meeting room. "I hope he orders resignations before the resignation," said one combative, who apparently hosted the chancellor's challenge. Seehofer had previously considered the possible options for UHC: to submit to the decisions of the Brussels summit and to the positive interpretation of Merkel. Or, as a second possibility, to order the rejection of already registered asylum seekers against Merkel's will, risking the dissolution of the coalition. Or as a third option its withdrawal.

What a resignation means for the coalition remains open

What he wants to accomplish with this, Seehofer did not explain. He spoke of his responsibility as Minister of the Interior for law and order, but also as he approaches his 69th birthday next Wednesday. Which also meant a real resignation for the continued existence of the coalition that remained open that night. The chaos was perfect anyway. And it has become bigger. After a two-hour emergency meeting, Seehofer returned to the meeting shortly before one in the morning – and, according to several participants, said that he had resigned from the announced resignation. The CSU leader's new plan: On Monday, he now wants to go to Berlin with a CSU delegation to the Chancellor. Then, but for the very last time, we will explore how the master plan can still be implemented.

Seehofer has, as reported by the participants, a threat in the baggage: if he can not immediately order his rejections, resign. Then the same questions would be asked about the future of the coalition as it was tonight. The wild plan also met the CSU party's friends on a shared endorsement. "Everything has been staged," said one of the participants overnight. Clearly, doubts are also growing in their own ranks as to whether the CSU chief's unprecedented show on this fateful Sunday will be a success and whether going back and forth as evidence of credibility and credibility will be a big success. Honesty of the voter is important.

Horst Seehofer was silent two days after the meeting in Brussels last Thursday. Then, during the CSU Board of Directors' and the CSU National Group's crisis meeting, it gradually became clear how deeply the UHC leader was in conflict. He spoke of his "ineffective" conversation with the Chancellor on this crucial day of the "final credibility" (Markus Söder). This was his response to the Chancellor's verdict, which quickly qualified the Brussels decisions as "more than effective". This early determination deeply angered the CSU. "The CSU can decide for itself," said at the Bundestag Hans Michel Bach meeting.

The CSU felt condescending, they realized that the Chancellor had almost two days of interpretation of the Summit. Among the CSU MEPs, who were perhaps closer than the other CSUs of Munich and Berlin, Merkel did not have to fear a tough counter-speech. They contribute significantly to the European course of reorientation of asylum and refugee policies. Manfred Weber, chairman of the EPP conservative parliamentary group in the European Parliament, is the most important "European" of the CSU, he tried to make a positive turn at the beginning of the session by designating the Brussels summit as a success of his party . true change, even though many things will only be effective in the medium and long term.

Seehofer was piqued on the information situation

But he sees as a merit that the CSU has lobbied: "In recent weeks, the CSU has shaken Europe." Seehofer only made known that in the night of Sunday inform decisions. Merkel and Seehofer spent two hours at the Chancellery discussing EU memoranda of understanding. The conversation was obviously disappointing for the boss of the CSU. In any case, at the CSU meeting, he did not give a good punch to the EU's decisions. Seehofer thus reported in the war of nerves with the CDU meeting in Berlin at the same time: A truce is not in sight in the dispute of the brother parties in sight.

On the contrary, climbing continued. Knowing that the CDU was carefully recording all the emotions of the CSU in Berlin, Seehofer meticulously prepared his dramatic departure: the arrangements for Dublin, which were to replace the refusals, were "adventurous", according to the participants. The CSU chief also presented his seemingly revised 22-page master plan, which no one knew until now – with the exception of the problem that Seehofer wants to dismiss as interior ministers of the plaintiffs. Asylum already registered in other countries at the German border.

According to Seehofer, the decisions in Brussels aggravate this situation. During the discussion, during which all CSU's frustrations over European asylum policy were resolved, most UHCs were "increasingly convinced of the simple necessity" of these rejections – even in their unilateralism. national – as one of the participants at the meeting. According to Seehofer's statements, a minister of state had the impression that the Chancellor was "determined not to give in" and thus to accept new elections. Initially, the leader of the party did not say what consequences he would draw. He let his performance work. And he let the discussion go. Contrary to usual, he did not comment on the individual speeches.

At the end of the session he announced a personal statement. With this dramaturgical turn, he maintained the suspense until late in the evening, since the term "personal explanation" immediately raises the speculation of resignation. But after five hours of discussion, a spokesman tried to calm her down: "You do not think he's backing down a second time because of Angela Merkel," he told reporters in waiting. In 2004, Seehofer as a parliamentary group and spokesperson for health policy in the conflict with the leader of the CDU, Merkel, resigned for capitation. Rarely, however, the management of the CSU was so unsuspecting in a meeting as this Sunday.

At least, no one dared to make predictions, because the president had apparently left his party friends until the last minute in the ignorance of what he would do . "We are now waiting for Deus ex Machina," a fatalism supervisor said. A Bavarian state minister was still confident: "We were still reasonable," he said, saying the coalition in Berlin would already be in place. Even former Prime Minister Günther Beckstein was confident in the fact that they were "on track" with an agreement. With threatening or apparently imminent separations from the sister party CDU, the CSU finally has its experiences.

Since the legendary separation decision of 1976 at Wildbad Kreuth under Franz Josef Strauss, the threat of divorce is part of the aggressive leadership repertoire of the Bavarian regional party. Ernst had never done UHC before.

If Seehofer wanted to go that far this time it was still unclear when the CSU leader um 13:40 outside the party headquarters. He came directly from Berlin. Contrary to his custom, he did not even bother to make a little joke. He silently pbaded the journalist on hold with a frugal smile that left any interpretation open.

The message was clear: the situation is serious, very serious. Seehofer pointed this out immediately in the meeting, which started with a delay of ten minutes. Flanked by country group leader Alexander Dobrindt on his right and secretary general Markus Blume on the left, Seehofer immediately grabbed the handheld microphone and set off with his payroll.

Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder sat facing the central table in front of the Council Chamber. While Seehofer had gone to Munich on Sunday morning, Fr ​​Söder had attended a ceremony for "Franks Day" in Ansbach with his wife. He praised his home as a "cultural and gastronomic region". According to many observers, he was unaware of what Seehofer would do at the end of the day. The day before, Söder had praised the fact that more pressure was being inflicted in Brussels than expected.

How far is Söder present in the European conflict?

For Söder, who had climbed the ranks of the Free State in a harsh power struggle and had won on his own, this day was more than for Seehofer. Therefore, it is also considered the driving force of the Union conflict. The president of the CSU, who turns 69 on Wednesday, is at the end of his political career. Which might tempt him to do everything. "He wants to enter history as a defender of the rule of law", had already declared in advance a member of the board of directors of the CSU. Söder, 51, still has a lot of things in mind. He plans a ten-year term as prime minister – and probably with the only rule in his party. He claims not to be a good weather politician, but the man from the CSU for particularly difficult times.

If he was able to save the absolute majority of the CSU in the fall, he would be the new "savior" of the party – as Seehofer was named after his party's electoral victory in 2013. However, the stable two-digit AfD survey numbers threaten the absolute majority of the CSU in 2018. Söder and Seehofer unite to consider asylum and refugee policy as the decisive issue . And at the central point where CSU must show credibility to voters. That's the lesson of the disappointing elections of autumn 2017.

After a long heated debate with Merkel, Seehofer has taken over the Merkel course before the elections. The result was a debacle, the CSU lost in the elections nearly ten percentage points. Seehofer and Söder are trying a cutting rhetoric ("asylum tourism") and intransigence in the matter. In investigations, but without success, the national reputation of the two alpha animals of CSU decreases. If the Berlin coalition government now separates from Seehofer's perseverance and the Chancellor's equally persistent response, the consequences for the election of the Bavarian state would be incalculable. In general, it is expected in the CSU that the crisis would lead above all the electoral votes of the AfD, which already supports the role of the most powerful opposition party in the polls of the Bavarian SPD.

The CSU, however, is at a dead end. If she gives in to the argument with Merkel, the AfD will put Söder and his CSU as a loser. However, if UHC prevails, it will not be enough for AfD to achieve what has been achieved. Should the union break down, the CSU would again be confronted with the well-known problems that had until then prevented the separation of the CDU: If the CDU occurs in Bavaria, split the bourgeois-conservative camp. In return, the CSU would face the tremendous organization and strength of the staff setting up nationwide. If it comes up here because of the dispute of the year 2018 could decide in the coming days.