Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel held an emergency meeting with the leaders of coalition partners to defuse a widening crisis in her two-month-old government sparked by the opening of a child pornography probe against Indian-origin former lawmaker.
Merkel met Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) and Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), for about three hours yesterday in the backdrop of the rising tension within the coalition following the resignation of Food and Agriculture Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
Friedrich quit last week over suspicions he leaked confidential information about the probe against Sebastian Edathy while serving as interior minister.
Edathy, son of a migrant from Kerala, has denied wrongdoing but has left Parliament.
The three leaders left the meeting without making any statement.
The state prosecutor`s office in Hannover, which is conducting the investigation, said their raids on the houses and offices of Edathy provided very little evidence relevant for a criminal prosecution against Edathy and they believed that he had received advanced information about the raids.
Edathy was the SPD`s home affairs spokesman until August and a member of the party`s managing board. He unexpectedly laid down his seat in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, on February 7, few days before the prosecutor`s office opened its probe.
Ahead of yesterday`s meeting, Merkel called for a thorough clarification of the child pornography affair involving Edathy.
