Merkel pressured on all fronts as ally takes swipe over migrants
German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked ever more isolated over her open-door policy on refugees on January 23 as it emerged that the leader of her party's Bavarian allies suggested this week she had become impervious to other people's views on the issue.
Chancellors in an advanced stage of their office only believe in themselves," Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), told a party meeting on January 21 during a discussion of Merkel's refugee policy.
Germany attracted 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, leading to calls from across the political spectrum for a change in its handling of the flood of refugees coming to Europe to escape war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
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But Merkel, in her third term in office since coming to power in 2005, has resisted domestic pressure for border closures and a refugee cap.
With three closely watched regional elections looming in March, Merkel is facing the toughest spell of her chancellorship over her handling of the refugee crisis.
In the last week, polls have shown sliding support for her conservative bloc, 44 members of which wrote to her urging a change of course, and respected President Joachim Gauck said there was nothing immoral about limiting the refugee influx.
Austria announced such a limit on January 20 - a move Merkel described as "not helpful".
Participants at the CSU's closed-door meeting confirmed Seehofer's comment, which was also reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on January 23.
Seehofer, whose state of Bavaria is the point of entry into Germany for most refugees, is under intense pressure from local municipalities to press the federal government to stem the flow of arrivals and has been a thorn in Merkel's side on the issue.
Germany's next federal election will be held in the autumn of 2017. Merkel has not yet said whether she will seek a fourth term, although some media have started to speculate about her future.