German Chancellor Angel Merkel faces another threat to her governing coalition this time from 68-year-old former Bavarian President and now Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. Leading the Christian Social Union Party [CSU], Seehofer helped Merkel cobble together her governing coalition last March, when Horst agreed to take the interior minister job. Angela plays a mean game of chess, eliminating her competition for chancellor, but, more importantly, finding ways to lead a governing coalition in Germany’s Bundestag. When Seehofer agreed to interior minister, Merkel thought she was out of the woods from the growing anti-immigration Alternative for Germany [AfD] Party led by 77-year-old Alexander Gauland. Merkel out-witted her rivals last year, appointing German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir president March 9, 2017, giving her four more years.
Seehofer was always an unknown for Merkel because of anti-immigrant sentiment in Bavaria, unwilling, like Merkel, to take unlimited numbers of Mideast refugees. Merkel wants to settle the immigration matter in the European Union but can’t cope with the reality that many other EU countries want no part of Mideast immigrants. Merkel’s insistence in 2015 of taking nearly 1 million Syrians, while, at the same time, backing the Saudi proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, showed a bone-headed policy. Head of the U.K.’s Independence Party 54-year-old Nigel Farage, who spearheaded the U.K’s June 23, 2016 Brexit vote, predicts Merkel will lose her governing coalition over immigration. Merkel can’t admit that an anti-immigrant mood in the U.K., caused British voters to bail out of the EU. Merkel now finds herself fighting with Seehofer to keep her fragile governing coalition.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party [CDU] joined forces with Martin Schulz and the Social Democratic Party, once led by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, to pull off her unlikely government. Fighting with Seehofer over current immigration policy, Merkel finds herself bucking a global trend. Angela likes to criticize President Donald Trump, who faces more border problems than any Western leader, whose debacle at the Mexican border has drawn worldwide scorn. While European leaders point fingers at the U.S., they have their own border problems. Britain would not have bailed out of the EU had they not insisted they must take more Mideast refuges. When you think the EU policy backed the Saudi proxy war in Syria driving12 million Syrians to neighboring countries and Europe, the EU helped create the largest humanitarian crisis since WW II.
Seehofer wants to turn away Mideast immigrants who already registered for asylum in other EU sates, something Merkel opposes. Merkel wants no change to her 2015 open-border policy, not restricting any group from immigrating to Germany. AfD Presdient Gauland believes Seehofer has been playing games, accepting Merkel’s plan of an open-border policy. “The CSU fears losing the absolute majority in the Bavarian regional election,” said Gauland if the AfD gains seats in the Bavarian government, something it did in the Bundestag for the first time in 2018. Merkel’s insists in an EU fix, something antagonizing German groups. “Everyone in the room knows that the CSU [Christian Social Union] wants to copy the AfD program via copy-and-paste to win over voters until the Sunday of the Bavarian election with a policy of more announcements,” said AfG lawmaker Gottfried Curio.
Seehofer’s Christian Social Union [CSU] gave Merkel two weeks to resolve the open-border policy in the EU. Merkel wants to continue her open-border policy but knows time is running out on a fix. Curio wants to deport immigrants who have registered with other EU states but has run into opposition with Merkel’s federal laws. Senior Christian Democrat leader Armin Laschet urged Merkel to resolve the dispute with Seehofer to prevent the extremists AfG Party from gaining more votes in the Bavarian government and Bundestag. Merkel has to strike a balance on immigration or face the same chaos she experienced in March trying to cobble together a governing coalition. Watching what’s happening in Germany to Merkel, Trump knows that open-border policies don’t work whether it’s in the U.S. or overseas. There’s far less tolerance for refugees in the EU than in the U.S.
Merkel faces a real dilemma trying to get the EU to fashion an acceptable immigration policy for Germany. With Brexit around the corner next year, Merkel knows that uncontrolled immigration isn’t accepted by the vast number of German voters, whether liberal, moderate of conservative. If Merkel pushes her open border policy, she could lose her governing coalition in the Bavarian elections this fall. Striking a balance between open-borders and xenophobia is a tough act in Germany and other EU states, especially Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic. Seehofer reminds Merkel that there are limits to the one-size fits all EU immigration policy, where Mideast refugees do not fill well in certain states. No matter what the immigrant history since WW II, Merkel faces real challenges trying fit Germany into the EU’s open border policy—already rejected by several EU states.
