BERLIN: Germany's mass refugee influx may have abated, but the fears and tensions it stoked loom large as a weakened Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to lead her party into a tough election year.

When her Bavarian allies the CSU kick off the 2017 campaign season with a party congress Friday, Merkel, for the first time in her 16 years at the helm of the ruling CDU party, won't be on the guest list.

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