MIGRANT REFUGEES: Merkel’s day of reckoning arrives

Angela’s Ashes

Nine days ago, The Slog posted as follows in relation to Germany’s self-congratulatory and sanctimonious attitude to the migrant refugees conundrum:

‘But there is hypocrisy in all this wherever you look. Merkel – desperate to rebuild the tarnished face of German humanity post Greek-firesale – has had her Spinmeistern pumping out every five-noughted figure they can think of. But out of the other side of her mouth, she has told the Italian authorities, “No more Austrian marchers via your country, please”.’

Now, unsurprisingly, unsere geliebte Geli has done a piroutted volte-face. From the Sunday Telegraph today:

‘As city after city across Germany announced it had no more room for the tens of thousands of refugees pouring into the country, and the mayor of Munich warned that new arrivals would soon be sleeping in the streets, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government announced it was reimposing controls on its border with Austria. All train services between the two countries were stopped at 5pm local time (4pm BST), and hundreds of police were on their way to secure the border.’

So: the showboating is over. Hungary’s more practical approach to, and preparations for, the crisis that few beyond Viktor Orban foresaw is vindicated. Time to take down all those signs saying ‘Refugees welcome here’. Time to quietly put all those ‘I welcome refugees’ bags quietly into the bottom drawer. Time for the pro-EU kneejerk Left to rethink their unalloyed admiration for Germany’s “courage” in accepting an infinite number of migrants.

The U-turn of Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was particularly remarkable for adopting the sort of terms for which Orban was branded a Nazi earlier last week. Asylum seekers, he said, “must abide by the rules and register in the first country of arrival in the EU…they cannot pick and choose where to live in Europe.”

The decision represents several nails in the coffin of the EU’s borderless Schengen system a cornerstone foundation of the European integration project. It also vindicates the resistance of other Eastern European member states beyond Hungary, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

I will close with this extract from a Slogpost of six days ago:

‘It is four years since Angela Merkel described multiculturalism in Germany as “a failure”: yet here she is, hogging the limelight now as The Great Saviour. This is two-faced of the lady, but not surprising: with the jubilant mood of wide-eyed German citizens as it is on the issue, she is of course playing to the gallery….both internally, and externally – where the Greek bullying lost the country many friends. The reality, however, is that sooner or later today’s migrant refugees have to become inclusive and tolerant citizens…‘

Yesterday at The Slog: The search for Pegasus continues

Filed under: MIGRANT REFUGEES: Merkel’s day of reckoning arrives Tagged: De Maiziere’s volte face, Merkel closes border to migrants