The Refugee Crisis Is Once Again Front And Center in Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will never escape the refugee crisis — and a major showdown over the enforcement of stricter immigration measures on Thursday showed just how divisive this issue remains in German politics.

At issue is the question of whether German states should be allowed to turn away asylum-seekers at the border, a policy backed by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. Seehofer, who comes from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (the more conservative sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats), says he'll go it alone if Merkel refuses to endorse his plan — a move that has the potential to bring down the current coalition government in Germany.

For Seehofer and his CSU, an upcoming state election in Bavaria this fall — in which they're working to prevent the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) from gaining support — certainly factors into this new, harder line on refugee policies. But at the moment, the implications go far beyond just Bavaria's election: this is by far the biggest disagreement within Germany's conservative coalition in recent political history, and unless either side backs down it could be disastrous for the German government.