German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition has apparently stepped back from the brink of collapse after late night emergency talks with her Bavarian allies resulted in an apparent immigration deal.

Bavarian conservative leader Horst Seehofer had threatened to resign his position as leader of his party and German Interior Minister if Dr Merkel failed to strike a bargain to control immigration to Germany — either multilaterally within Europe, or unilaterally at home. Seehofer seemed certain to walk away from the government after Merkel failed to compromise on her strong open-borders convictions, however, an agreement to tighten borders has reportedly been struck.

Emerging from the late-night meeting Monday, Seehofer told journalists the new deal would “prevent the illegal immigration on the border between Germany and Austria”, but gave no more details.

In effect, the likely outcome of the deal is as Dr Merkel wished — a European one. In controlling Germany’s southern border to a greater degree than it has been recently, Germany will establish transit zones where migrants will be screened and those who have already applied to asylum elsewhere in Europe sent there — a move upholding the word of European law as laid out in the so-called Dublin regulations.

While Seehofer’s comparatively strong stance has caused this clash with Merkel, the Bavarian leader remains a centre-right figure fundamentally unopposed to mass migration, and the new compromise will do nothing to undo the effects of decades of mass migration to Germany — most dramatically those million-plus arrivals who walked through Europe during the migrant crisis.

The strongest voice in opposition to mass migration in the Bundestag is the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who have 94 seats to the governing coalition’s 246. Originally conceived as a protest movement against Germany’s involvement with the Euro single currency, the AfD has recently found its voice — and unprecedented success at the ballot box — opposing mass migration.

This story is developing

Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook