On 2025-05-31 11:15 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
Merkel's Back, Warns Europe Could Be 'Destroyed' Without More Open-Borders
Merkel's Back, Warns Europe Could Be 'Destroyed' Without More Open-Borders
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=fixed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
User-Agent: Usenapp/0.92.2/l for MacOS
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is back with a message; Europe could be
'destroyed' unless they continue to allow millions of non-Europeans to flood the bloc.
Criticizing Chancellor Friedrich Merz's migration policy, Merkel told Southwestern Press Forum in Neu-Ulm last week that efforts to secure borders could have catastrophic consequences.
"I do not believe we can decisively combat illegal migration at the German-Austrian or German-Polish border... I have always advocated European solutions," she said when asked about Merz's latest measures adopted by his cabinet - which include a prohibition on asylum applications at all German land borders, with exceptions for pregnant woman, children and other vulnerable individuals - a sharp reversal from Merkel's 2015 open-border policy. "Otherwise, we could see Europe destroyed."
Critics have called Merkel's open-border policy disastrous after over a million migrants flooded into Germany during the peak of the 2015-2016 refugee
crisis, while Germany continues to be the top destination for asylum seekers -
'welcoming' over 237,000 applicants in 2023, roughly 25% of the bloc's total, according to EU stats.
Merz promised to crack down on migration his first day in office in the run-up
to Germany's snap election on Feb. 23. Less than 24 hours after being sworn in, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced sweeping border controls that would prohibit migrants from entering Germany, including those seeking asylum.
Merkel's criticism of Merz is her second this year - as she previously slammed
his decision to rely on 'far-right' politicians to help pass an anti-immigration motion in parliament.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/merkels-back-warns-europe-could-be-destroyed-without-more-open-borders
It's more than a little weird that Merkel is criticizing Merz. After
all, he belongs to her same party and I think he was a cabinet minister
in one of her governments; it's not like he belongs to one of their
party's rivals....
I'm also surprised that she isn't savvy enough to recognize that the
"far right" party, the AfD, is outstripping ALL of the other parties,
including hers, in the polls and that Merz needs to make some move to
curb immigration if he's going to have any chance of reducing the AfD's
support and increasing his own. Otherwise, they may well win the next
election.
Mind you, I don't see how the AfD can hope to rule because they don't
seem at all likely to get an actual majority of all the seats in
parliament so they'd have to form a coalition with one or more other
parties to actually rule, just as all other elections have gone for many decades now. The other parties have all agreed NOT to work with the Afd
to freeze them out of any government coalition.
Maybe they're afraid that some party will renounce the pact to freeze
out the Afd if the AfD is the largest party so that they can be in power
with the AfD. Otherwise, I don't understand why they are so concerned.
Even if the AfD is the biggest party at the next election, the remaining parties could still potentially form a coalition and then form
government. It would be unusual for the governing coalition to exclude
the biggest party but it doesn't seem inconceivable to me.
Clearly, a lot of Germans like what the AfD stands for so the other
parties need to figure out how to appeal to those same voters more than
the AfD does.
--
Rhino
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)