GERMANY LATEST:  MERKEL APPEARS WEAKENED BY LATEST DEVELOPMENTS, AUSTRIA SET TO 'TAKE MEASURES'

"We finally brought Ms. Merkel to do what she'd always rejected:  To establish asylum centers and repatriate illegal immigrants at the border"

Alternative for Germany Party statement from co-leaders Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel 

"We will be obliged to take measures to avoid disadvantages for Austria and its people"

Austrian government statement on what will happen if German deal on "transit centers" at Austrian border goes ahead

"we need to focus on external border management"

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks at European Parliament-Strasbourg 7/3/2018

"But this is no victory for Angela Merkel.

The row and the subsequent solution, have exposed the fraility of her position and may surprise those who still venerate the German chancellor as a defender of liberal values and open borders."

BBC Correspondent Jenny Hill analysis 7/3/2018

Angela Merkel has cut a deal short on details with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the Bavarian Christian Social Union but now she must accommodate her other government partners in the Social Democratic Party, who have not committed to the agreement.   Pro-migration factions of the party oppose. the notion of "transit centers" to keep migrants out of Germany itself.

The new Italian government pushed for something to be done about migrants and got Merkel and the other European leaders to agree to 'transit centers' at last week's EU summit, but the Italians are not going to take back anyone Germany wants to send from its 'transit centers'.

In between Italy and Germany is Austria and the Austrian government is now signaling the need to seal its Italian border to prevent migrants from Italy pushing northwards to a potential logjam at the German border.


Links below......




GERMANY POLITICAL CRISIS SPREADS-DAILY TELEGRAPH 7/3/2018


BBC CORRESPONDENT ANALYSIS 7/3/2018