Her meeting from 1000 GMT with Bavarian sister party CSU kicks off weeks of exploratory coalition talks involving four parties, which will fight for ministerial posts and issues from EU relations to climate policy. CSU leader Horst Seehofer, a harsh critic of Merkel’s open-door policy, has revived his calls to cap refugee numbers at 200,000 a year – a demand Merkel has consistently rejected as unconstitutional. Its success came at the expense of the mainstream parties, making it harder for Merkel to form a working majority. For now, these talks are down the road, expected to start after the October 15 Lower Saxony vote. First of all, said CSU lawmaker Alexander Dobrindt, the CDU and CSU must establish whether they are “still sister parties”.

Source: Dhaka Tribune October 08, 2017 04:07 UTC