Merkel Wins Backing for Migration Deal From SPD Coalition Ally

(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel won the support of her Social Democratic coalition partner for a deal on migration policy that brought her own party bloc back from the brink of a split.

Getting the SPD on board caps three weeks of political tension in Europe’s biggest economy and further defuses a divisive debate about migration. To avoid the risk of losing her parliamentary majority and potentially her chancellorship, Merkel agreed on Monday to a demand by her Bavarian sister party to clamp down on asylum seekers who move from arrival countries such as Greece and Italy and end up at the German border.

After two negotiating sessions with Merkel on details of the measures, SPD leaders announced their endorsement on Thursday evening, Deutsche Presse-Agentur newswire reported.

For more on Merkel’s migration that averted a coalition crisis, click here.

As part of the final compromise, SPD chairwoman Andrea Nahles said her party and Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc agreed to speed up asylum processing and that the government would draft immigration legislation this year, DPA said.

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