Merkel faces battle to rein in Crazy Horst

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, will be boosted by victory for Horst Seehofer in Bavaria

THERE was good and bad news for Angela Merkel last week as the German
chancellor’s Bavarian ally, Horst Seehofer, marched into a beer tent in
Munich to rapturous applause from supporters and the jaunty accompaniment of
a traditional oompah band.

Seehofer — nicknamed “Crazy Horst” — is expected to be returned as the leader
of Bavaria in state elections today, boosting Merkel’s campaign to be
re-elected for a third term in next Sunday’s national poll.

The bad news is that a buoyant Seehofer, leader of the conservative Christian
Social Union (CSU), may attach tougher conditions to continuing in coalition
at a national level with the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Seehofer, 64, has a knack for exploiting voters’ frustrations with centralised
decision-making in Berlin and Brussels. With good reason: Bavaria, home to
12.5m people and such household names as BMW, Siemens and Adidas, is
Germany’s richest state and by far the biggest