Merkel News

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel declined to comment on Saturday on a Polish law that imposes jail terms for suggesting the country was complicit in the Holocaust, saying she did not want to wade into Poland`s internal affairs.

Chancellor Angela Merkel faced criticism from within the ranks of her own conservatives on Thursday for making concessions to her centre-left Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partners to seal a governing alliance a day earlier.

Germany now faces weeks, if not months, of paralysis with a lame-duck government that is unlikely to take bold policy action at home or on the European stage.

Merkel's disputed liberal refugee policy that let in more than a million asylum seekers since 2015 came back to haunt her.

The AfD has been sharply critical of Merkel's decision to take in 1.3 million mainly Muslim migrants and says Islam has no place in Germany.

"Today, we are united across all borders in horror and sadness, but equally in determination," Merkel said in a statement issued on Sunday. 

The result leaves the CDU short of sufficient support to rule alone in the state, but means the SPD cannot continue to govern in coalition with the Greens and the South Schleswig Party (SSW), which represents the ethnic Danish minority.

"When we call them Nazis they (Europe) get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

The issue of sanctions is due to be discussed at an EU summit on Thursday and Friday. 

Merkel also underscored the need to "establish coherent cooperation" in development policy and military support in Mali, her first port of call.

Merkel told reporters that four brutal assaults within a week were "shocking, oppressive and depressing" but not a sign that authorities had lost control.

A 14-year-old Palestinian girl who burst into tears when Chancellor Angela Merkel told her she might be deported has been granted a residency permit to stay in Germany until October 2017, mass-selling daily Bild reported on Thursday.

Lawmakers in Germany, the biggest contributor to euro zone bailouts, on Friday gave their go-ahead for the currency bloc to negotiate a third bailout for Greece that could total 86 billion euros ($93 billion) over three years. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the outcome of Greece`s referendum with French President Francois Hollande in a telephone call Sunday evening, with both agreeing the apparent `No` vote must be respected, a German government spokesman said.

Greece was appealing to its euro zone partners and the European Central Bank on Wednesday to keep it afloat after defaulting on its debt to the International Monetary Fund and losing frozen international bailout money.

Greek debt will miss debt targets set out by creditors in 2012 but an analysis prepared for euro zone finance ministers shows its debt burden is still sustainable without writing off principal -- if Greece gets another three-year bailout.

The leaders of France and Germany on Friday handed Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a weekend ultimatum to strike a debt deal with EU-IMF creditors or risk default.

Greece failed again to clinch a deal with its international creditors on Thursday, setting up a last-ditch effort on Saturday to avert a default next week or start preparing to protect the euro zone from financial market turmoil.

Tsipras was due to resume meetings with the heads of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank -- the "troika" of Greece`s main bailout monitors -- at 0700 GMT.

Greece`s creditors saw a ray of hope as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras went into an emergency eurozone summit aimed at finding a deal to save Athens from default and a possible exit from the euro.