Germany’s interior minister is reportedly set to resign due to disagreements with Angela Merkel over her immigration policies.

News agency Dpa said that Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian-only Christian Social Union which is in coalition with Mrs Merkel, was planning to announce his resignation.

Mr Seehofer and Mrs Merkel have been at odds over Germany’s approach to mass migration. </s> MUNICH (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has offered to resign as both minister and as chairman of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union at a closed meeting of the party’s presidency, party sources said on Sunday.

Sources said Seehofer had not yet submitted the resignation and that some in the party were attempting to change his mind over the decision.

Seehofer has been pushing for Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to a tougher immigration policy. </s> Munich: German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has offered to resign as both minister and as chairman of Bavaria's Christian Social Union at a closed meeting of the party's presidency, party sources have said.

Sources said Seehofer had not yet submitted the resignation and that some in the party were attempting to change his mind over the decision.

Seehofer has been pushing for Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to a tougher immigration policy. </s> MUNICH, July 1 (Reuters) - German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has offered to resign as both minister and as chairman of Bavaria's Christian Social Union at a closed meeting of the party's presidency, party sources said on Sunday.

Sources said Seehofer had not yet submitted the resignation and that some in the party were attempting to change his mind over the decision.

Seehofer has been pushing for Chancellor Angela Merkel to agree to a tougher immigration policy. </s> Germany's interior minister has offered his resignation after a conflict with Angela Merkel over migration policy, party figures say.

Horst Seehofer has been at odds with the chancellor over her approach to mass migration.

He has threatened to turn away some categories of asylum seekers at the German border while Mrs Merkel has sought a European solution.

Sources in Mr Seehofer's party - Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) - said he wanted to "step down" as interior minister and chairman of his party, as he enjoys "no support".

The CSU tried for weeks to get Mrs Merkel to agree to reject asylum seekers at the border if they had already registered in other countries or to get a similar deal from the European Union by 1 July.

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Image: Angela Merkel and interior minister Horst Seehofer

Mr Seehofer complained in Sunday's closed meeting with party bosses that his conversation with the chancellor had "no effect", sources said.

Germany's DPA news agency reported that some members of Mr Seehofer's party were trying to change his mind on the resignation.

It is not clear what effect Mr Seehofer's resignation could have on Mrs Merkel's government, which has looked increasingly precarious during the three-week stand-off.

The CSU and Mrs Merkel's CDU (Christian Democratic Union) have been allies since 1949 but the CSU faces a state election in Bavaria in October, and its anti-immigration stance is its main campaign platform. </s> Berlin: German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has dropped his threat to quit after hours of talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), saying the two conservative parties had the tightened border controls he was demanding.

Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), had offered to step down from both his positions, giving Merkel a second ultimatum on creating a hard border with Austria to stem the flow of migrants.

The clash between Merkel and Seehofer, who is also the leader of the Bavarian conservatives in Merkel's coalition, escalated after eight hours of talks on Monday failed to resolve a stand-off over a policy that would affect relatively few migrants but has become deeply political. Failure to end the stalemate could have topple Merkel's government and even end her long run as chancellor.

"After intensive discussions between the CDU and CSU we have reached an agreement on how we can in future prevent illegal immigration on the border between Germany and Austria," he told reporters on leaving the CDU's Berlin headquarters. </s> BERLIN (AP) — Germany's interior minister is expected to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party after offering his resignation in a bitter dispute over migration policy, but there's little sign of a possible compromise.

The three-week dispute pits Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavaria-only Christian Social Union against Merkel, the head of its longtime sister party, the Christian Democratic Union.

Ahead of a difficult Bavarian state election in October, the CSU is determined to show it's tough on migration. Seehofer wants to turn some asylum-seekers back at Germany's border, but Merkel is adamant that Germany shouldn't take unilateral action.

Seehofer, who reportedly argues that measures to tackle migration agreed at a European Union summit last week aren't enough, said early Monday he would hold talks during the day with the CDU. </s> Germany's interior minister Horst Seehofer said Sunday he wants to resign both his office and his position as head of the hardline conservative Bavarian CSU party, throwing into doubt the future of Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government.

"He wants to step down as party chairman and interior minister" as he enjoys "no support", CSU party sources told AFP Sunday.

But CSU parliamentary group chief Alexander Dobrindt "does not want to accept Seehofer's resignation," participants in the party's hours-long huddle in Munich on Sunday said.

If Seehofer does resign, it is unclear whether the CSU would seek to remain in coalition with Merkel's CDU and offer a replacement interior minister.

Alternatively it could break up the two parties' decades-long alliance, effectively depriving Merkel of her majority in parliament and pitching Germany into uncharted political waters.

Seehofer and his party met Sunday seeking a response to a hard-fought agreement to reduce migration into the European Union and so-called "secondary migration" between member states hammered out by Merkel at a leaders' summit last week.

The CSU had pressured Merkel for weeks to either agree to its plan to turn away at the border asylum seekers already registered in other countries or to achieve EU deals that would have the same effect, setting her a deadline of Sunday July 1.

Sources said Seehofer complained in Sunday's closed meeting with party bosses that he had endured a "conversation with no effect" with the chancellor on Saturday about whether the EU-wide deal and string of bilateral agreements she struck met his demands.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the CDU party Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in Berlin the chancellor's camp was "united" behind "effective, humane solutions together with our European partners" after its own leadership gathering. </s> Germany's interior minister has offered his resignation to Chancellor Angela Merkel over the government's policy on accepting migrants.

Horst Seehofer, a member of the conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union, has not only offered to resign from Merkel's Cabinet, but also from the leadership of the CSU.

His offer to step down follows a marathon meeting with senior members of his party who tried to persuade him to stay on, according to Deutsche Welle.

"In the interest of this country and the capacity of this government, which we want to maintain, we want to make an attempt to find an agreement on this central question of turning people away [at the German border]," Seehofer was quoted as saying by Deutsche Welle.

Despite tendering his resignation, the interior minister said he wanted to meet with Merkel on Monday before making a final decision.

Merkel has insisted that the migration crisis — which has seen tens of thousands of North African and Middle Eastern asylum seekers enter European Union countries in recent years — is a matter for Europe as a whole to resolve.

Although the number of migrants has dropped sharply since the crisis began in 2015, the influx has nonetheless stoked anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe, particularly in countries such as Germany and Italy, where last month the issue helped propel a right-wing government to power.

The SDU is key to Merkel's coalition. Should Seehofer resign and his party withdrawal from the coalition, it would spell the collapse of Merkel's government.

The Associated Press writes, "If Seehofer does step down, it is not immediately clear what effect the move would have on a three-week impasse between Merkel and her CSU partners, which has centered on his resolve to turn away some types of asylum-seekers at Germany's borders."

Last week, in a summit convened in an effort to resolve the migrant issue, the EU agreed to take a harder line on those seeking asylum from countries that the bloc does not consider war zones.

However, much of the deal carried the proviso that member states could participate on a "voluntary basis."

Even so, Merkel said additional agreements could give the agreement teeth. Those would include deals for Spain and Greece to take back migrants registered in those countries who are caught by police trying to enter Germany.

"The sum total of everything we have agreed upon has the same effect" as what Seehofer has demanded, Merkel said in an interview with ZDF television, as reported by AP. "That is my personal opinion. The CSU must naturally decide that for itself."
Interior minister Horst Seehofer offers his resignation citing a conflict with Angela Merkel over her refugee policy.