‘I Can’t Work with the Woman’: Minister Slams Merkel amid Refugee Row, Report Says

The latest words of German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer underscore the growing discord between his party and Merkel’s. Seehofer’s insistence that Germany must rethink its migrant policy clashes with Merkel’s controversial Open Doors policy, threatening the marriage between Germany’s two center-right parties as well as the coalition government.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, has become exasperated with his country’s Chancellor, reportedly telling fellow legislators “I can’t work with the woman anymore.”

 According to the German newspaper Welt, he repeated his remark twice during a behind-the-scenes meeting with CSU’s cabinet members and the head of its regional group in the Federal Parliament, Alexander Dobrindt. It took place before their conflict with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union over proposing more border control measures escalated.

The newspaper cites the participants as saying the remark was made in anger, out of frustration or due to emotional exhaustion. It came the day after he spoke to the Chancellor about the harder border checks proposed in his “Masterplan for Migration.” It suggests turning away refugees registered in other European countries at the German border, a move opposed by Merkel and the CDU.

However, in his recent interview with the German tabloid Bild, Seehofer stated that he doesn’t want a government crisis, and nobody targets Angela Merkel.

“No-one in the CSU is interested in overthrowing the Chancellor, dissolving the CDU / CSU faction, or breaking the coalition,” he told the Sunday’s issue of the newspaper.

He also hasn’t given any details as to whether a compromise is possible, saying “We finally want a sustainable solution for refusing refugees inside our borders.”

SPUTNIK

R.S