Chancellor Angela Merkel faces growing resistance to her European policy from within her own coalition. Horst Seehofer, the leader of the powerful CSU party, sharply criticized the outcome of last week’s EU summit, and threatened to let the coalition government collapse if Berlin makes any more concessions to ailing euro members.
Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, the leader of the conservative Christian Social Union party (CSU) which is part of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right federal government coalition, has criticized the outcome of last week’s European Union summit and threatened to let the government collapse if Berlin makes any further financial concessions to ailing euro member states.
“The time will come when the Bavarian government and the CSU can no longer say yes. And I wouldn’t then be able to support that personally either,” Seehofer said in an interview with Stern magazine released on Tuesday. “And the coalition has no majority without the CSU’s seats.”
The CSU is the Bavarian sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
Germany’s billions of euros in aid and guarantees were already “borderline,” said Seehofer, who is known in Germany for his combative, occasionally populist style. “My biggest fear is that the financial markets will ask: Can Germany cope with all that? That is the point I regard as the most dangerous of all.”
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Afternoon Updates:
12:02 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — They really don’t like us, these Eurocrats
12:03 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 – Cyprus bank bailout ‘could cost 10 bln euros’
12:04 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — Eurobonds must come with increased controls: Italy’s Monti
12:05 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — Greek recession set to get far worse, minister warns
12:06 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — European shares sag as banks and utility stocks dip
12:08 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — Fisher: Why are so many Greek youth snubbing work?
12:09 pm EDT, July 4th, 2012 — The heart of euro crisis still untouched
