#Merkel - a messy compromise on borders

Bavarian CSU leader Horst Seehofer has withdrawn his threat to resign from her government after a compromise on migrant policy late last night, and Merkel’s coalition is intact for now at least.

Whereas Merkel got backing from her CDU throughout the saga, polls show that Seehofer’s challenge actually lost votes for his party - the opposite of what the whole gambit was designed to do.

Merkel's other coalition partner, the centre-left SPD, said it would look at the deal very closely before deciding whether to give its backing. Given its declining voter base, the last thing it is likely to want is a confrontation with Merkel that could end in bruising early elections.

But all this is not without cost, both to Merkel and the EU. She can argue that the creation of “transit centres” on the German border to detain EU-registered migrants does not contravene the rules of the EU’s borderless Schengen zone.

But the centres, which like "airside zones" in international airports will not be regarded as being in Germany, are nonetheless a concession to the increasingly influential voices across Europe who want to limit people's freedom to move around. For someone like Merkel who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and has staunchly defended that freedom ever since, that is not an optimal result and is further evidence of her waning power.