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.
