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.

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.