Frau Merkel Sounds the Retreat from the Immigration Battlefield
[guest post by JVW]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took nearly six months to stitch together a very shaky government after her party suffered major losses in last September’s election, has agreed to the demands of her coalition partner the Christian Social Union (CSU) to tighten the rules governing asylum seekers, including housing many of them in camps set up at Germany’s border while they await processing instead of permitting them to travel throughout Germany. This represents a significant backtracking from the policy that Chancellor Merkel pushed on Germany — and, by extension, on continental Europe — three years ago. Under the proposed policy, those who first enter Europe via Greece or Italy or Albania or Croatia or wherever can no longer trek straight to the border and enter refugee-accommodating Germany or Sweden, they must instead wait in the camp at the border while their status is determined. Germany’s Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, has promised his CSU allies that the new policy will allow closer vetting and make it easier for migrants whose refugee application is rejected to be sent back to their home countries or somewhere else in Europe (think of another German-speaking nation on Germany’s southern border).
This new proposal still needs the blessing of the more left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD), the third player in the coalition government, who is arguing for a liberal policy at the German border coupled with greater aid to Italy and Greece to allow more refugees to remain there, as well as calling for greater border control overall at the shores of Europe. In other words, the SPD hopes to punt the matter off to the coastal states while paying lip service to combatting “the root of the problem” causing people to emigrate to Europe. While the SPD claims that talks are “making progress,” they have temporarily been suspended until Thursday so that the German leaders can celebrate America’s Independence Day. All of this, largely to prevent the immigration restrictionists from the Alliance for Germany Party (AfD) from making further gains at the expense of the traditional German center-right.
Chancellor Merkel has largely virtue-signaled and blundered through this whole immigration imbroglio, but don’t discount her ability to survive with a politically clever solution. Though apparently Austria has not yet been officially contacted regarding the new policy and though Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is far less interested in accepting refugees than his German counterpart, the fact that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Obran has not ruled out striking a deal with Germany and Austria suggests that Berlin can mitigate the immigrant crisis by paying off Vienna and Budapest. We’ll have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, Sweden’s vast tolerance for immigrants will be put to the test in elections this September, as parties who oppose Sweden’s current policies are looking to make gains in a country that sees itself as “a humanitarian superpower” yet prides itself on social cohesion.
– JVW
Um, I’m just kidding about the German intra-party talks being suspended tomorrow for the U.S. Independence Day.
JVW (42615e) — 7/3/2018 @ 3:55 pmOh, and if you want to read a really snively left-wing take from the New York Times, it’s right here:
To the NYT “multilateralism in Europe” means everybody does what France and Germany say.
Well how do you like that: Mrs. Merkel’s arrogant blunder from three years ago still rankles her citizens, even though the worst is behind them.
The murder rate in New York is at historic lows, so why get all up in arms about that horrible day back in September 2001, right NYT? God, these people are unbelievable.
JVW (42615e) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:02 pmthey can be right proper palestinians, squatting in them camps
for generations!
they’re sure to get a special rapporteur
(so prestigious)
papa can you help me not be frightened
happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:15 pmThe leader of the Free World is entitled to make mistakes.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:20 pmDenmark is doing something you’d expect out of China. Of heavily migrant-included “ghettoes”, the kids will have to spend twenty-five hours a week not counting nap time nor Graham cracker time getting Danished. Multi-culti isn’t as neat as the anthropology profs said it would be.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:22 pmAn inconvenient fact?
https://www.memri.org/tv/protesters-in-tehran-shout-america-is-not-our-enemy
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:22 pmRussia is winning. It’s been Russia that’s been pushing this anti-immigrant meme. Especially the part about the migrants being dangerous.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:24 pmDenmark doesn’t need to do all of that – and much of that is useless – to prevent children from growing up to be terrorists.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:24 pm1. JVW (42615e) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:02 pm
That one doesn’t really count, and it is not really fair to include that in the statistics.
And I don’t think even one of the 9/11 terrorists spent a day in New York.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:26 pmThe root of the “problem” is bad governments in Africa and the Middle East. Bad for economics and bad for freedom.
In a word: “decolonization”
Combined with people moving off the farm, and greater contact and familiarity with the outside world. Previous migration to the country is a big factor.
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 7/3/2018 @ 4:30 pmSo Merkel worked to forge a consensus with her political rivals and hammer out a sensible long-term solution to her country’s immigration problem, with broad political support?
What a failure of leadership!
Dave (445e97) — 7/3/2018 @ 6:29 pmMerkel’s survival is in doubt. Her immigration policy is a failure that will have far-reaching implications and impact on the EU.
Colonel Haiku (d54e37) — 7/3/2018 @ 6:32 pmThe hamburg cell, should have been the wakeup call, fraud merkel doesn’t her they don’t want any more refugees.
narciso (d1f714) — 7/3/2018 @ 6:37 pmFrau Doktor* Kanzelrin Merkel understands the fundamental Law of Nature that in order for the superior Aryan race to flourish it must be in a continual state of conflict with the inferior races otherwise it will, as Nietzsche described, turn against and fight and destroy its own self; but at the same time it must take care not to intermingle and pollute its own superior Aryan blood with that of the inferior races. It can at times be a delicate undertaking.
*She has a doctorate in quantum chemistry.
nk (dbc370) — 7/3/2018 @ 6:43 pm“Struggled to absorb.”
Hard to do when they refuse to, er, absorb at all.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/3/2018 @ 6:46 pmAll Merkel had to do to prevent the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that she was largely responsible for was to act prudently and with caution instead of engaging in reckless virtue-signaling and she couldn’t muster what it would take to do that.
Colonel Haiku (d54e37) — 7/3/2018 @ 7:03 pmNobody’s perfect.
Dave (445e97) — 7/3/2018 @ 7:04 pmConDave she would force you into getting your C9H9N straight in no time at all.
Colonel Haiku (d54e37) — 7/3/2018 @ 7:11 pmThe msm is heavily pushing the “number of migrants has dropped to a trickle” meme.
Read this book if you read nothing else.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strange_Death_of_Europe
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/3/2018 @ 8:40 pmSeems to me they spent long enough, Sammy.
Bill H (383c5d) — 7/3/2018 @ 9:23 pmEurope could be our future……but I sure hope not.
“Wikipedia is protesting the European Union’s copyright initiative, which many people believe will do significant damage to freedom on the internet and effectively make memes illegal.
The Italian Wikipedia website went dark on Tuesday to spread the word that the proposed copyright law would make it nearly impossible for Wikipedia to exist in the EU. The European Parliament voted on June 20 to pass the initiative, but there will be another vote on Thursday.
“On July 5, 2018, The Plenary of the European Parliament will vote whether to proceed with a copyright directive proposal which, if approved, will significantly harm the openness of the Internet,” the Wikipedia statement reads.
“The directive instead of updating the copyright laws in Europe and promoting the participation of all the citizens to the society of information, threatens online freedom and creates obstacles to accessing the Web, imposing new barriers, filters and restrictions,” Wikipedia added. “If the proposal would be approved in its current form, it could be impossible to share a news article on social networks, or find it through a search engine; Wikipedia itself would be at risk.”
“The proposals Wikipedia is protesting are Articles 11 and 13 of the EU’s Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Market.
Article 11 forces content creators — who in this case would include Facebook, Google, YouTube and Wikipedia — to a pay a tax for simply linking to other URLs.
Article 13 effectively makes parody and satire illegal, which includes memes, through forcing content creators to use a government-monitored filter that would automatically block anything it considers a violation of a pre-existing copyrighted content.”
http://amp.dailycaller.com/2018/07/03/wikipedia-italy-eu-copyright/?__twitter_impression=true
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/3/2018 @ 11:12 pm90% of republicans agree with trump on immigration and trade. ( the other 10% run out of the party hangs out here.) join bill kristol and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. bye bye neo-con artists.
wendell (e69edb) — 7/4/2018 @ 2:04 amBefore Merkel’s stupid immigration flood, Germany was the best of Europe to visit, with hard working citizens and no Muslim wwhiners to speak of.
Now that has been totally ruined by misguided immigration policies.
william elbel (fd5d32) — 7/4/2018 @ 7:24 amSo Merkel worked to forge a consensus with her political rivals and hammer out a sensible long-term solution to her country’s immigration problem, with broad political support?
Well, that’s one way to look at it. But here’s another: Mrs. Merkel forced her nation into an ill-advised policy three years ago, based upon little more than virtue-signaling. She was warned that Germany lacked the ability to properly vet the new arrivals, yet she still permitted them open access to her country and she set a tone where criticism of her policies or concern about assimilating immigrants whose cultural values were vastly different from Germany’s was de facto racism. Once the “refugees” (many of whom were simply unemployed young men seeking work) were in the country, the Merkel government put pressure on local authorities to downplay any increases in crime caused by uncultured young men. Again, all of this had been foreseen by immigration skeptics, yet the Chancellor pressed forward. She also paid absolutely no heed to the stresses this placed upon other nations in Europe, so this was in essence a German go-it-alone policy. Now, three years too late, she is taking the concerns of all of her citizens into account, not just the moral preeners or virtue signalers.
It’s good that she’s finally getting it right, but it’s woe unto the German people that she wasted three years on a baldly stupid policy which has fueled the rise of nativism and soured lots of her citizens on liberal immigration rules.
JVW (42615e) — 7/4/2018 @ 8:52 amIt’s time for Germany to grow up. Pay for your own defense, stop ruining the world with your wars when your politics go bad. Stop playacting your constant guilt for Hitler and close your borders and enforce the values that we taught you after 1945.
We will probably keep our troops there for a century or so, though, until you show you can handle it.
Happy Independence Day all.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/4/2018 @ 9:01 amThat was a great comment, Patricia.
I have nothing to add to that.
Happy Independence DaY!
ThOR (d25d69) — 7/4/2018 @ 9:37 amWhat about the Iranians? Is Merkel restricting their flow as well? Keeping them in camps even? She sounds like a bigot and a real asshole.
Anon Y. Mous (01516b) — 7/4/2018 @ 9:49 am“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.
But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.
If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.”
Calvin Cooledge – July 4, 1926 – 150th Anniversary of Declaration Of Independence.
Happy Fourth Of July!!
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/4/2018 @ 10:20 amMr. Elbel, you missed the Turkish interregnum of the 60s to 90s in West G., but yes they did piss away the dividend from finally assimilating the Turk with this migrant business.
urbanleftbehind (0a50c8) — 7/4/2018 @ 10:48 amyes, but the gastarbeiter, ‘guest worker’ was a limited affair as opposed to this, I believe the tragic fate of al kurdi from kobane, was the catalyst here,
narciso (d1f714) — 7/4/2018 @ 10:53 amSilent Cal didn’t usually have much to say but when he spoke the message was loud and clear. His statement on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is every bit as timely and perceptive today on this July 4th as it was in 1926.
All men are created equal (before the law)
ropelight (21d56e) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:14 am#31 was inadvertently submitted prior to completion, but readers will grasp my point.
I wish all loyal Americans, especially those who comment here, a happy and safe Independence Day.
ropelight (21d56e) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:20 am#32, and especially to our gracious host and his family, a sincere wish for a completely enjoyable holiday.
ropelight (21d56e) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:29 amThank you for that Coolidge speech, harkin 28. Here is a link to the complete speech if anyone wants it.
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:41 amIt came from Powerlibe, didn’t it?
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:47 amPowerline.
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:47 amThe federalist had it as well,
Narciso (b3b641) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:51 amBut the Federalist highlighted a different section, and had audio.
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 11:58 amAmity Shlaes’ Coolidge (2013) is as concise and focused as its subject, and I found it an enjoyable and informative read. If you enjoyed his Fourth of July speech, you’d enjoy this book.
Beldar (fa637a) — 7/4/2018 @ 12:14 pmCoolidge was as committed to slashing the federal budget as Trump is to playing golf, banging models, and bragging. Coolidge was the anti-Trump.
Beldar (fa637a) — 7/4/2018 @ 12:18 pmThere wee no social security or Medicare in Coolidge time, and anyone even in Texas who sought to trim it back would face a buzz saw, lets not pretend otherwise
narciso (d1f714) — 7/4/2018 @ 12:24 pm36 – Powerline has it but I saw it here:
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-occasion-of-the-one-hundred-and-fiftieth-anniversary-of-the-declaration-of-independence/
H/t Instapundit
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/4/2018 @ 12:42 pmOk, Ed Driscoll’s link. Thanks. I thought it came from Powerline. It’s helpful to have people post or summarize those links.
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 1:10 pmThere is so much more to that speech and to Coolidge than Powerline or Driscoll excerpt. I know they need to be brief but IMO it’s worth the time to read it all, and to read the book Beldar links.
DRJ (15874d) — 7/4/2018 @ 1:14 pmA 4th of july thought. When boswell asked dr. samuel johnson what he thought about the american revolution going on at the time. he said ” I observe those who scream the loudest about freedom and liberty are the slave holding southerners.” some things never change.
boswel (66fa2e) — 7/4/2018 @ 2:09 pmThere’s a lot more to the Dec of Independence too. A string of “repeated injuries and usurpations” that ring true today. They were a bunch of Libertarians I think.
Our two “sides” got together today for a bike parade. Wildly decorated bicycles ridden by cute little kids has a way of softening the enmity, if even for one day.
So Happy Independence Day to all. Yes, our people are all yelling at each other and worried to death, but that’s still better than the uneasy silence of tyranny.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/4/2018 @ 2:19 pm46 and a lot were libertarian slave holders.
boswel (66fa2e) — 7/4/2018 @ 2:26 pmWired Sources
@WiredSources
WATCH: Democrats protest ICE while they bust a human trafficking ring
https://mobile.twitter.com/WiredSources/status/1014317920799911936
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/4/2018 @ 4:23 pmneo-nazi merkel-germany’s actually more liberal than leggy meggy’s leg-splayed tommy-gulag britain (knock me up baby)
yup.
my advice?
just go with it
happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/5/2018 @ 12:38 amtemperatures rise inside my sugar walls
happyfeet (28a91b) — 7/5/2018 @ 12:39 amThe politics of Maxine Waters have reached San Antonio.
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/viral-video-shows-teen-attacked-for-wearing-make-american-great-again-hat
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/5/2018 @ 9:48 amAngry babies commission angry baby blimp:
https://news.sky.com/story/trump-angry-baby-blimp-gets-green-light-to-fly-over-london-during-presidents-visit-11426665
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/5/2018 @ 10:18 amOh dear, Bozzie (#45). You have mangled the quote, which is:
But of course, none of this is in your works on Johnson, because Dr. J said this in a pamphlet in 1775 Taxation No Tyranny. It’s a cute quote. But more in the vein of a hack’s riposte, than wise conversation over stout at Ye Cheddar Cheese.
Appalled (96665e) — 7/5/2018 @ 10:33 amSpeaking of Frau Merkel:
“Germany’s chancellor said Thursday she’s willing to back lower tariffs on U.S. auto imports as a potential European Union (EU) concession to the Trump administration – just one day after CEOs of Germany’s biggest carmakers reportedly voiced support for eliminating such tariffs entirely.
Angela Merkel said she would be ready to support lowering the tariffs, though the measure couldn’t just apply to the U.S.
“I would be ready to support negotiations on reducing tariffs but we would not be able to do this only with the U.S.,” she said, as reported by Reuters, adding that singling out one country would violate World Trade Organization rules.
On Wednesday, the chief executives of prominent German auto companies – including Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen – “liked” a Trump administration proposal for both sides to reduce those tariffs to zero, according to German business news outlet Handelsblatt. The proposal was said to have been made by U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell during a meeting at the U.S. embassy.
The EU tariff rate on all U.S. car imports is 10% while the U.S. tariff on imported European cars is 2.5%.
Auto stocks, including Ford, Fiat and General Motors, rose on the news Thursday.”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/germany-willing-to-cut-tariffs-on-us-cars-lifting-automakers-shares
harkin (ef4f0e) — 7/5/2018 @ 10:38 am