Bavarians vow resolve in migrant plan showdown with Merkel

Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) want to back a plan on Monday to limit immigration at the German border but will leave it up to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to decide how to implement the measure, state premier Markus Soeder said.

By backing the "master plan," the CSU – Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies – would defy her and risk destabilising her three-month-old coalition. But leaving it up to Seehofer, CSU chairman, to decide on implementation could fudge the matter for now.

A showdown over immigration between Merkel and her conservative CSU allies has escalated in the last week but on Sunday there were signs of a possible compromise when Seehofer said the row could be overcome.

"An important part of the masterplan is the possibility of turning people back at the border," Soeder told reporters as he arrived for a party presidency meeting in Munich.

"The overwhelming majority of the German population supports this idea and this concept, and that's why we want to provide support today for implementing it," he said. "It will be for the interior minister to decide on implementation."

Leaving it up to Seehofer to decide on how to implement the plan could allow him to strike a compromise deal with Merkel.