Sunday, January 24, 2016
Germany and the EU Need Merkel Because There Isn't Anyone Else
Angela Merkel's room to maneuver shrank last week when Austria said it would impose an upper limit on refugees, suggesting Germany may need to do the same to maintain social order. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said German police are turning away 100 to 200 people at the border each day who do not quality for asylum. Open Sweden is imposing stricter border controls. EU states to the east of Germany simply refuse to take asylum seekers. Resistance to the open-door refugee policy is Merkel's biggest crisis in the ten years she has led Germany and, de facto, the EU. Merkel looks for help from coalition partner Bavaria, the region where most asylum seekers arrive, but the response is mostly negative. Her hold on the chancellery is openly questioned by coalition rebels. She signaled last Wednesday she’ll give diplomacy another month, during which she has planned talks with Turkish leaders, an international donor conference on Syrian refugee aid in London, and an EU leaders summit where the refugee crisis “must play a central role,” Merkel says. With the other 27 EU leaders thus far unwilling to share Germany’s burden, Merkel seems to be pursuing a coalition of the willing, relying less on EU countries taking refugee quotas, and instead pushing for reception centers to be built on Europe's external borders, as well as cajoling Turkey into halting the flow of migrants through its territory and taking back some refugees. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says Merkel has two months to get the refugee numbers under control : “We need to get a grip on this issue in the next six-to-eight weeks. When spring comes the numbers will quadruple, or at least go up significantly.” Merkel says she won’t be the one reverse passport-free travel and commerce in Europe, the central achievement of the EU. But, after sexual assaults on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year’s Eve, her position is much more difficult. ~~~~~ There was good news for Merkel on Sunday when UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening said Britain might take refugee children displaced by the war in Syria, who have travelled to other countries in Europe. Greening said the UK government was considering whether it could do more for the 3,000 such children who are in Europe. Asked whether Britain would agree to admit the children, Greening told Sky News : "That's what we are doing and I think that is the right thing." And Thursday, President Obama spoke by telephone with Merkel, promising to support efforts to ease the refugee crisis. The chancellor's spokesman Steffen Seibert said : "The President promised that the US government would contribute substantially." Obama also said he hopes to host a summit for world leaders in September, to secure new commitments to help address the issue. The White House said : "The two leaders committed to working together over the coming months to help protect and provide for the millions of people whose lives have been upturned by war." ~~~~~ For many Germans, the refugee crisis is out of control. Immigrants flow into Germany in large numbers. Sexual assaults and violence in Cologne and other cities on New Year’s Eve undermine government credibility and police ability to ensure law and order. A migrant who recently tried to attack a Paris police station had registered for German asylum -- four times with four different identities. And, terrorism and asylum are fused after ten Germans were killed by a suicide bomber from Syria in Istanbul. ~~~~~ Dear readers, despite all the bad news, the German public supports Merkel. An ARD survey released Friday shows a steady 38% would still vote for her party -- 44% of Germans say they still believe Merkel’s “can do” approach to the crisis will work. Merkel has no apparent challenger, and the man most often seen as a potential heir, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, rose forcefully to defend her last week and went with her to Bavaria. Angela Merkel is not yet defeated, and Germany and the EU are probably better off for her determined presence. Who else is there?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
“Anarchy” is one of those words that many people react to emotionally. Anarchy, strictly defined, means simply the absence of government, it does not mean that people won’t – much less can’t – govern themselves. The fact is most people do exactly that already.
ReplyDeleteAnd they do it without government. Given that almost everything is currently illegal unless done precisely the way the government demands it be done.
But it’s not likely you’d become a murderer or a thief, even if government disappeared tomorrow. Because you – like most people – are capable of self-government. Have no desire to hurt others and so try to avoid doing so, law or no law. Which is what anarchy’s all about. It does not mean the absence of rules or order. It certainly does not mean chaos.
Like most people, you are probably not a narcissist or a sociopath or a psychopath. Such people are, according to academic studies of the matter, always a small minority of the general population. You will, however, encounter them regularly in government, which attracts defective people afflicted by the sick desire to lord it over others.
And no matter how important the world leaders may seems today for their ability to solve the problems they and only they have created – they are not. If suddenly all the established power brokers of government were tomorrow, our life would continue trying to do the best for each others.