The German government's spokesman Steffen Seibert, commenting on the reports that the decades-long alliance between Bavaria's Social Democrats and Merkel's Christian Democrats collapsed, urged journalist to keep calm, though neither confirming the Twitter hoax, nor denying it.
"We must stay calm. I am not going to comment on it no matter what's the source of it," he said during the briefing.
Hans Michelbach, deputy head of the CSU faction in the German parliament, slammed the report as "rubbish", pointing out that the CSU was willing to preserve its alliance with the CDU.
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Meanwhile, spokesman for the German broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk refuted the reports, stressing that the Twitter account which had posted the news was fake.
Rumours about possible collapse of the alliance between the CDU and its sister party CSU emerged after differences on the country's migration policy had intensified between Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the head of the Christian Social Union, and Chancellor Merkel, who leads the CDU.
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Seehofer proposed his own "Masterplan for Migration," the project which would allow authorities to more easily reject migrants that reach Germany's borders, whereas Merkel is a proponent of the "open door" migration policy.
The conflict which erupted between the CSU and the CDU jeopardized the coalition government, which has been functioning for only three months.
