Caught between extremes, Merkel's party mired in crisis

• The breaching of a "firewall" preventing any cooperation between centrist parties and the anti-immigrant AfD has sparked soul searching on both wings of the CDU.

BERLIN: Senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union warned Saturday the party was in crisis as it tries to keep its distance from both the hard right and left.

The issue has come to a head in recent weeks in the small eastern state of Thuringia, where uproar followed a move by CDU regional lawmakers to join the far right AfD in voting to oust a popular Left party politician as state premier.

The breaching of a "firewall" preventing any cooperation between centrist parties and the anti-immigrant AfD has sparked soul searching on both wings of the CDU.

An identity crisis now threatens to engulf the party after Merkel's anointed heir Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was forced to renounce her leadership ambitions after failing to hold a clear party line on the issue.

"We are going through a crisis of confidence," Health Minister and rising party star Jens Spahn said Saturday.