- Title: Merkel coalition slides into "permanent crisis mode" with spy row
- Date: 19th September 2018
- Summary: IMMENDINGEN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 19, 2018) (REUTERS) DAIMLER CEO DIETER ZETSCHE, GERMAN CHANCELLOR AND CDU LEADER ANGELA MERKEL AND BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG STATE INTERIOR MINISTER THOMAS STROBL ARRIVING TO INAUGURATE NEW DAIMLER TESTING AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE IN IMMENDINGEN NEAR BORDER WITH SWITZERLAND VARIOUS OF ZETSCHE, MERKEL AND STROBL POSING FOR CAMERAS VARIOUS OF CARS ON TE
- Embargoed: 3rd October 2018 17:39
- Keywords: German Chancellor and CDU leader Angela Merkel SPD leader Andrea Nahles CSU leader Horst Seehofer spymaster Hans-Georg Maassen
- Location: IMMENDINGEN & WEILER & BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: IMMENDINGEN & WEILER & BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0018YAN58N
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:A clumsy compromise to end a row over the fate of Germany's spy chief has exposed a cruel fact: the parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel's right-left coalition are loveless partners in a dysfunctional relationship that none of them can afford to quit.
The coalition leaders sought on Tuesday (September 18) to end a scandal that had rumbled on for 11 days by agreeing to replace the head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, who has faced accusations of harbouring far-right sympathies.
Their solution - promoting spymaster Hans-Georg Maassen to a better paid position at the Interior Ministry - has only inflamed tensions among the rank-and-file of the ruling parties, whose leaders are united by fear more than collective purpose.
SPD leader Andrea Nahles told reporters in her hometown of Weiler that the decision was "wrong" and Interior Minister and CSU leader Horst Seehofer was to blame.
The scandal, the latest in a series of setbacks to shake the six-month-old coalition, threatens to erode further the German ruling elite's authority and may point to years of policy drift just as Germany and Europe are crying out for firm leadership.
Polls show both Merkel's conservative bloc and its junior coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), would bleed votes to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the ecologist Greens in any new elections.
That leaves their leaders hanging on to the awkward right-left 'grand coalition' as Merkel, serving her fourth and likely final term as chancellor, tries to secure her legacy as a stateswoman and the SPD struggles to remain relevant to voters.
The SPD led by Nahles had wanted Maassen removed after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing far-right radicals hounding migrants in the eastern German city of Chemnitz.
But Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), stood behind Maassen.
By promoting the spymaster to the post of state secretary in his Interior Ministry, Seehofer found a solution that satisfied the SPD's demand for Maassen's removal from the BfV but left the coalition looking lame. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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