BERLIN: Opposition by Germany's Social Democrats, junior partners in the ruling coalition, to the nomination of conservative Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission chief is making governing difficult, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

"We are working for Mrs von der Leyen to be elected," Merkel, also a conservative, told a news conference after meeting Denmark's prime minister in Berlin.

"I is not an easy situation - I want to say that emphatically - that the coalition partner is not pulling together with us here," she added.