BERLIN - A tense truce within German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative camp imploded Thursday after her hardline interior minister defended protests marred by neo-Nazi violence and blasted immigration as "the mother of all political problems". "There is agitation and outrage among the public over this killing that I can understand," Seehofer told the daily Rheinische Post. - 'No mob, no pogroms' -While he condemned the violence, Seehofer, the most strident critic of Merkel's liberal refugee policy within her coalition, expressed sympathy with the anger that fuelled the protests. His comments echoed remarks this week by Seehofer's counterpart from Italy, firebrand interior minister Matteo Salvini, that Merkel had "underestimated" the troubles mass immigration would bring. Seizing on the fresh rift in the government, AfD leader Alexander Gauland defended Seehofer, telling the daily Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung that he was "perfectly correct in his analysis" of Merkel's migration policy.

Source: Bangkok Post September 06, 2018 14:48 UTC