Weakened Merkel to face judgment of her Bavarian allies



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BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel's political future rests in the hands of the Christian Social Union (CSU) on Sunday, when the Bavarian party's leadership meets to decide whether to accept migration deals she brought back from Brussels.

FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a news conference following the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2018. REUTERS / Francois Lenoir

Nine months after elections A weakened Merkel is forced to turn to European Union to help resolve a conflict with her allies after they have rebelled against her immigration policy.

The party's leader, interior minister Horst Seehofer, is threatened to turn migrants back from the Bavarian border, a move that would almost certainly precipitate a government collapse.

At a Brussels summit this week, the leaders of the European Union to process asylum seekers.

Separately, Merkel announced deals with 16 EU countries for returning some refugees, and proposed setting up reception centers where others would undergo an accelerated asylum procedure, in a hardening of the open-door asylum policy in 2015.

FILE PHOTO: Migrant women and a child, part of a group intercepted aboard a dinghy off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea, are seen after arriving on a rescue boat at the port of Motril, Spain June 22, 2018. REUTERS / Jon Nazca / File Photo

Bavaria's first Markus Soeder, mindful of October regional elections in which he faces a stiff challenge from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), took credit for pressuring Merkel to reach a deal.

"It goes absolutely in the right direction," he said, but added he would keep it up.

While most analysts expect to survive the CSU, it is unlikely to be the last opportunity to find a home for the rest of the world.

Underlining the uncertainty over what had been agreed, Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban had the same position as the Merkel's nemesis in the immigration debate polarizing the continent, denied it had signed any agreement.

Although a document circulated by Merkel to her coalition partners said that it was agreed that it should be agreed that it had signed no such deal.

The AfD, holding its party congress in Bavaria, where it hopes to take votes from the CSU in October, sought to capitalize on the confusion.

"She will fall, however much she flails her arms around," he said, describing the Brussels deals as "so much hot air".

Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Robin Pomeroy

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