BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's hardline allies on Wednesday took aim at her backing for a new eurozone budget, opening up another front after an attack against her on immigration.
Merkel's Bavarian sister party CSU had on Monday already given her an ultimatum to curb migrant arrivals or risk pitching Germany into a political crisis that could rattle Europe.
But it now also takes issue with an agreement announced Tuesday by Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron to set up a common budget for the eurozone which will fund investments in poorer member states.
"We were always very sceptical about a eurozone budget. Simply because it's a form of additional budget," Bavaria's state premier Markus Soeder told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"Is it separate from the German legislature? Does it mean that the fundamental stability of the euro will be challenged? All that must be clarified," said Soeder.
The CSU will call a coalition panel to examine the issue, he added.
Interior minister Horst Seehofer, also from the CSU, added: "Unfortunately, there were no discussions with us on this topic in advance, so we should not be now surprised that many questions and interpretations are emerging."
Germans are deeply opposed to any "transfer union" that sees their taxes flowing to eurozone laggards.
Merkel herself had initially appeared lukewarm to the idea of a budget for the bloc.
But she has since offered a key concession in backing Macron's call for such a fund, even though she has said that the total sum should be in the low tens of billions range -- far less than what Paris had hoped for.
Neither Merkel nor Macron at a Tuesday summit mentioned a figure for the budget or how it would be funded, saying only that details would be determined by the eurozone's 19 members.
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