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Deutsche Welle

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a consolidation of federal and state spending in order to achieve a balanced budget. She was a guest speaker at the annual party conference of her coalition partner, the Christian Social Union or CSU, in Nuremberg. The speech is seen as a bid to fix a widening rift over tax policy between Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union or CDU, and the CSU. The two-day conference seeks to finalise a campaign stragegy for the upcoming elections in the state of Bavaria in September.