Analysis of Germany’s latest COVID figures shows that infections are soaring where the vaccination rate is lower than the national average. Many of the districts with the highest infection rates are in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia, and more recently Brandenburg.

But even in Bavaria — where the vaccination rate is only slightly lower than the national average — there are hot spots. Bordering Austria, which was affected by the pandemic earlier than Germany, Bavaria dealt with higher than average numbers at the beginning of the pandemic, and that is still the case.

Vaccination roll-out has been most successful in the northern city-state of Bremen, where nearly 80% of the population has been vaccinated thanks to coordinated efforts to reach out to citizens.

Limited education, right-wing inclination
Can a lack of willingness to be vaccinated be put down to a lack of education or to a certain political ideology? Heike Klüver, of the Institute for Social Sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin, published a study into Germans’ willingness of Germans to be vaccinated, based on a representative group of 20,500 people surveyed in March 2021. Some 67% of those asked were already vaccinated or willing to be, 17% were undecided and 16% rejected being vaccinated altogether.

“We see a significant correlation between education and rejection of vaccination. The lower the level of education, the higher the rejection,” Klüver told DW. “The people who reject vaccination are more likely to be voters for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and more likely to have held right-wing positions. In addition, these are people who have low trust in politics, the government, the media, and the health-care system as a whole.”

Previously against immigration, now against vaccination
Many people who oppose vaccination against the coronavirus appear to share political views on other matters too. “We see relatively clear skepticism when it comes to migration,” says Klüver. “As early as March, we could see that these anti-vaxxers did not adhere to mask or social distancing rules.” The lack of social distancing also contributed to driving up infections in the AfD’s strongholds in the eastern states.

The group opposing vaccination has long had a common spirit, according to Josef Holnburger of the CeMAS research group. CeMAS, short for Center for Monitoring, Analysis, and Strategy, conducts research primarily on radical right-wing issues and conspiracy narratives online and is funded by the Alfred Landecker Foundation, among others.

“If it becomes known that someone in this scene has been vaccinated, then that leads to indignation from others,” Holnburger said. “Because it means someone is seen to have given in.” He added that vaccine skepticism was being deliberately instrumentalized by right-wing groups, especially in the east. “That’s surprising insofar as these are acstates that traditionally had a particularly high vaccination rate, for example against measles or tetanus.” This was a kind of late legacy of the communist German Democratic Republic, where numerous vaccinations were mandatory, unlike in West Germany.

Holnburger, like Klüver, sees a direct connection between state-rejecting, right-wing slogans and vaccination refusal. “There are people who have a closed ideological worldview, who have a different view on reality and cannot be convinced with arguments,” he said. “We see that with other issues, too, with measures against climate change, for example.”

In Saxony and Thuringia, there is a growing number of reports that people who want to be vaccinated and doctors who administer vaccinations have become targets of verbal attacks and threats of violence. Critics of anti-coronavirus measures are also strong in Germany’s south, in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.

Most scientists and physicians agree that politicians should not let the radical opponents of vaccination stop them from taking drastic measures against the pandemic.

“There could be further polarization, but trust in existing institutions was already very low,” says Klüver. On the other hand, a clear majority of Germans are still willing to be vaccinated and stand by most of the coronavirus measures, even the painful ones.

This article was translated from German.

While you’re here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/covid-highlights-a-geographic-split-in-germany/a-59884113

The post COVID highlights a geographic split in Germany first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As Angela Merkel enters the home stretch of her nearly 15-year tenure, more people express confidence in the German chancellor than in any other world leader asked about in a recent Pew Research Center survey of 14 countries. And in six of those countries, the share of adults who have confidence in Merkel is the highest on record.

This year marks the last full calendar year that Merkel will serve as the head of Germany’s federal government. Merkel announced in October 2018 that she would not seek reelection in elections planned for next year. She is closing out her tenure amid the coronavirus pandemic and widespread economic pessimism in Europe and elsewhere.

Overall, a median of 75% across the surveyed countries say they have confidence in Merkel to do the right thing regarding world affairs. That is higher than the share who say the same about French President Emmanuel Macron (63%), British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (50%), Russian President Vladimir Putin (23%), Chinese President Xi Jinping (19%) and U.S. President Donald Trump (17%). Majorities of adults express confidence in Merkel in every country surveyed except Italy, where people are divided (50% confident, 49% not confident).

The six countries where confidence in Merkel is now at its highest level on record are the United Kingdom (where 76% have confidence in her), Canada (74%), Spain and Australia (both 72%), Japan (67%) and the United States (61%). In France and Italy, confidence in Merkel was higher prior to the eurozone crisis than it is now. And in Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden, more people had confidence in Merkel in the years following the height of the refugee crisis than currently.

Since Merkel took office in 2005, confidence in the German chancellor has been relatively stable in much of Europe – Germany in particular – as she has helped coordinate national and international responses to the eurozone debt crisis, the refugee crisis and now the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of Germans have expressed confidence in Merkel throughout her tenure, with around eight-in-ten (81%) doing so now. The share of Germans who express no confidence in Merkel has declined 12 percentage points in two years, from a high of 31% in 2018 to the current figure of 19%.

Notably, confidence in Merkel remains high internationally even though views of Germany have declined in several countries since 2007. In Italy, for example, the share of adults with a favorable view of Germany declined from 75% in 2007 to 53% in 2019. Still, Germany continues to be viewed much more favorably than not overall. Across 15 European countries surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2019, including Russia and Ukraine, a median of 74% had a positive view of Germany.

Views of Merkel differ by education level and, in some countries, by gender

In 12 of the 14 countries surveyed this year, those with a postsecondary education or higher are more likely to have confidence in Merkel than those with less education. In Italy, for example, 64% of those with more education have confidence in Merkel, compared with 47% of those with less education, a difference of 17 percentage points.

Views of Merkel also differ substantially by education in the UK, Australia, the U.S., South Korea, Denmark and Japan. And in Merkel’s own country, people with at least a postsecondary education are more confident in their chancellor than those with less education (88% vs. 78%, respectively) – though confidence is high among both groups.

In most countries, views of Merkel don’t differ by gender. But in Canada, Spain and South Korea, men are more likely than women to have confidence in her. The reverse is true in Germany, where 86% of women express confidence, compared with 75% of men.

In the U.S., confidence in Merkel differs widely by party

The share of Americans who express confidence in Merkel has increased from 38% in 2006 to 61% in this year’s survey. (In 2006, 38% did not offer an opinion, a share that fell to 9% this year.)

In recent years, impressions of Germany’s leader have differed by Americans’ partisan identification. Democrats and independents who lean to the Democratic Party are now much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say they have confidence in Merkel (76% vs. 50%). Earlier in Merkel’s tenure, Democrats and Republicans barely differed in their views.

Democrats have become much more likely to express confidence in Merkel over time. In 2006, 35% of Democrats expressed confidence in Germany’s leader, a share that has risen to about three-quarters (76%) today. By comparison, Republicans’ confidence in Merkel has changed little.

In Germany, views of country’s handling of COVID-19 are linked to confidence in Merkel

Among Germans, views of their country’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak are tied to confidence in Merkel. Those who say their country has done a good job dealing with the virus are much more likely than those who say it has done a bad job to have confidence in Merkel (87% vs. 41%, respectively).

Germany has fared relatively well during the coronavirus outbreak. The country has fewer COVID-19 deaths per capita than many other European countries surveyed. And a majority of Germans (61%) say their everyday lives have not changed too much or at all as a result of the outbreak.

The German economy has also generally held up, though data suggests a slow recovery. About half (51%) of Germans say the current economic situation is good, and they are among the most optimistic in Europe, with 47% saying that the economic situation will improve in the next year.

Germans are also very positive when rating their own country’s job dealing with the coronavirus outbreak: Nearly nine-in-ten (88%) say the country has done well. About two-thirds say both the European Union and World Health Organization have done a good job with the outbreak. However, views are not so positive toward the other two countries asked about in the survey: A majority say China has done a bad job, and 88% say the same of how the U.S. has handled the outbreak.

While Germans broadly have confidence in Merkel, there are political differences in views of the chancellor. Those with favorable views of two of the ruling coalition parties – Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) – are more likely to say they have confidence in Merkel to do the right thing regarding world affairs than those who do not have favorable views of these parties.

However, supporters of Germany’s right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party are much less likely to be positive on Merkel than those who who do not support AfD. About half (51%) of AfD supporters have confidence in Merkel, compared with 86% of those who do not support the party.

Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/02/confidence-in-merkel-is-at-all-time-high-in-several-countries-during-her-last-full-year-in-office/

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New details have emerged in the investigation into the August 2018 demonstrations in Chemnitz that show extreme right-wing individuals made specific plans to “hunt” migrants and foreign-looking individuals, German media reported.

The news sheds further details on the events one year ago that resulted in Chemnitz taking center stage in discussions on the prevalence of right-wing extremism in Germany and that nearly caused the downfall of Angela Merkel’s national coalition government.

A ‘great readiness to use violence’ in Chemnitz

According to research by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, and broadcasters WDR and NDR, the Saxony Criminal Police Office evaluated chat messages exchanged between known members of Chemnitz’s extreme right scene between August 26 and 28.

On August 26, a German national was killed in a stabbing in Chemnitz. Non-German nationals were suspected of the crime, with a 23-year-old Syrian national recently convicted of manslaughter in the crime.

The stabbing led to a week of far-right protests in the city that drew neo-Nazis from across Germany and saw migrants or foreign-looking individuals chased in the streets.

Social media was also used to draw right-wing extremists from across Germany to Chemnitz to take part in anti-immigrant protests

The Saxony report summarized that the demonstrations were marked by “great readiness to use violence against police officials, people with actual or immigrant backgrounds, political opponents and journalists,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung said.

The report also stated that the chat participants used the word “hunt” (“Jagd”) repeatedly as the events in Chemnitz were ongoing, and described wanting to or having violently attacked people of immigrant background.

The document also states that the chat participants boasted among themselves about having successfully hunted supposed migrants.

The chats point to “the actual implementation of violent criminal acts against foreigners,” the report read.

The right-wing violence in Chemnitz unleashed a debate over whether or not foreigners and foreign-looking individuals had been specifically targeted and pursued.

Evidence against doubts that shook the government

The then-president of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, disputed the idea that such a hunt had taken place and openly questioned the authenticity of videos showing foreign-looking individuals being chased.

Maassen was initially promoted into a different position before being forced into retirement. The events almost toppled Merkel’s government.

The doubts expressed by Maassen, a member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), as well as his closeness to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, triggered a crisis that nearly brought down the government coalition. The co-governing Social Democrats (SPD) demanded his removal. Maassen was eventually forced into retirement.

The Saxony police report is part of an investigation into the August 2018 Chemnitz events and is in the hands of the attorney general’s office for further evaluation.

Death sparks demonstrations

The demonstrations were sparked by a deadly brawl that broke out in the German city of Chemnitz in the early hours of Sunday (August 26). What started out as a war of words resulted in a 35-year-old man being stabbed to death. Hours later, spontaneous, anti-migrant protests took over the streets of Chemnitz.

German-Cuban killed

A German-Cuban man was stabbed in an altercation involving 10 people, several of whom were of “various nationalities,” police sources said. The victim, named only as Daniel H., was apparently well-known among various political groups in the area. Two men in their 30s were also stabbed and seriously injured, and a 22-year-old Iraqi and 23-year-old Syrian are in custody over the killing.

Police reinforcements called

By Sunday afternoon, some 800 people had gathered to protest the man’s death, including far-right groups. Authorities said the crowd was largely uncooperative and threw bottles at police officers. Police reinforcements had to be called in from nearby cities. The mobilizations were spontaneous and are thought to have surfaced following calls to demonstrate on social media.

Misinformation

German authorities said that those far-right groups spread misinformation on the internet. Among the false claims was that the victim of the knife attack died protecting a woman.

Protests and counterprotests

Thousands of far-right and counterdemonstrators faced off in a second day of protest Monday. Several people were injured as objects and fireworks were hurled. Video footage showed the far-right “Pro Chemnitz” movement holding a banner with a quote from early 20th-century poet Anton Günther reading “German and free we aim to be.”

‘No place for Nazis’

Counter-demonstrators denouncing right-wing extremism also took to the streets of Chemnitz. Among the protesters were Antifa, who clashed with right-wing demonstrators.

Author: Louisa Wright

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-right-wing-extremists-planned-hunt-of-migrants-reports/a-50176487

The post German right-wing extremists planned ‘hunt’ of migrants: reports first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

To see how explosive the situation could potentially be in Berlin this weekend, you need only look at a map of the possible demonstration routes.

The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party hopes to attract as many as 10,000 supporters to Berlin’s main train station on Sunday. From there they plan to march a little over one kilometer (0.62 of a mile) to the western side of Brandenburg Gate, where party co-chairmen Alexander Gauland and Jörg Meuthen are scheduled to address the demonstrators.

That’s if those demonstrators get there. An alliance of AfD opponents, including politicians, migrant-advocacy groups, theaters, dance clubs, gay and lesbian groups, trade unions and Berlin party people, have vowed to turn out in even greater numbers and prevent the right-wing populist march. As the week drew to a close, anti-AfD activists had applied for permits for at least thirteen counter-demonstrations and other events.

The largest of them is scheduled to take place in front of the Reichstag, more or less directly across the river from the train station. Another demonstration is planning to march to the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate.

Police say that the routes will only be finalized on Sunday morning. They add that the number of officers deployed to prevent violence between the two sides can only be determined when the number of participants is clear. They say their priority is to ensure that everyone can exercise their constitutional rights to assemble and make their views known.

As Germany’s capital and its largest city, Berlin is no stranger to mass political events. But the rival demonstrations planned for Sunday are a novelty. And neither side is ruling out the chance that things might get physical.

A new concept for a party?

“It’s not going to be any picnic,” said the main organizer of the AfD demo, Guido Reil, at the party’s press conference ahead of the event.

Reil says that the populists want to voice their discontent at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s welcoming stance toward migrants, the transfer of powers from the national to the EU level and the growing gap between rich and poor in Germany.

A muscular fellow and miner by trade, Reil accuses the AfD’s left-wing opponents of threatening violence and trying to prevent a democratically elected party for having its say. He and other AfD leaders say that extremist groups like the “identitarian movement” are not welcome at their demonstration, and that banned right-wing extremist banners, symbols and chants will not be tolerated.

It’s highly unusual for a political party represented in the Bundestag to stage a rally of this sort when there’s no election on. Critics say that this is an example of the AfD’s character as a “movement party” – a term that alludes to Nazism, which was as much a popular movement as a political party.

Reil says that Sunday’s rally is an example of how the far-right populists differ from the established forces in postwar Germany’s political landscape.

“We’re an alternative party, and that’s why we do things differently than the old parties,” Reil told reporters. “Parallel (to parliament), we take to the streets and give our members and supporters the chance to actively participate. That’s very important. Because we’re alternative. It’s a new concept.”

Reil added that he hopes marches like the one planned for Sunday will become annual events and that the number of people taking part will grow.

‘Not a single step’

That’s something that Nora Berneis, one of the main figures behind the umbrella organization “Stoppt den Hass” (Stop the Hatred), wants to hinder. The human rights activist says that she hopes to physically prevent the AfD march.

“We want to attract so many demonstrators that the AfD won’t be able to take a single step,” Berneis told Deutsche Welle, adding that her umbrella organization, which includes more than 120 groups, was willing to engage in “civil disobedience” to achieve their ends.

Berlin police say they have a responsibility to ensure freedom of movement on both sides to events that have been granted legal permits. But in cases where masses of people represent a safety risk, police have leeway to determine whether demonstrations should be allowed to proceed as planned.

Berneis says the strategy of physical blockage has worked before, specifically in February when left-wing protesters succeeded in halting a right-wing demonstration purportedly for the rights of women.

There will also be a protest on boats on the Spree River and on trucks sponsored by Berlin’s famous nightclubs.

105 decibels against the AfD

DW | Politics @dw_politics

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/berlin-braces-for-pro-and-anti-afd-demonstrations/a-43917727

The post Berlin braces for pro- and anti-AfD demonstrations first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) (L), the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) (C) and the Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) (R) hold a discussion in the German parliament on March 22, 2018. © M. Popow / Global Look Press

No sooner has Germany finally got its new government than its head engages in a bitter dispute with a key minister and a crucial ally. Such conflicts may prove fatal to the futures both of the ruling coalition and its members.

Just days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fourth cabinet was sworn in, the perceived tranquillity in Europe’s powerhouse following the months of uncertainty was again disturbed – this time by the newly appointed interior minister. Horst Seehofer, who is also the leader of Merkel’s longstanding Bavarian allies the Christian Social Union (CSU), provoked yet another bout of controversy by saying that “Islam does not belong to Germany.”

Read more

‘Islam doesn’t belong to Germany’: German interior minister talks tough on immigration

The minister’s statement immediately drew a rebuke from Merkel, who said that “Islam has now become a part of Germany,” and provoked a barrage of criticism from other German parties. What is more important, however, is that it seems to have rekindled an old dispute that has plagued the relations between the two German “sister-parties” and their leaders for quite some time.

Merkel versus Seehofer

Seehofer previously served as prime minister of the German federal state of Bavaria for some ten years. At the height of the refugee crisis, the south-eastern state found itself on the front line, accepting the massive inflow of asylum seekers travelling to Germany via the so-called Balkan route. Being the second-most populous German state, Bavaria also had to take in one of the largest shares of refugees that came to Germany.

As a result of these developments, Seehofer seems to have adopted a much more hardline stance on immigration than Merkel, who stubbornly defends her decision to open German borders for refugees at the height of the refugee crisis. For some three years, the CSU head has been fiercely criticizing his ally for her ‘open door’ policy. He has also long demanded a cap on new arrivals alongside with a much stricter immigration policy.

FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) & the head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Horst Seehofer (R) © Bernd von Jutrczenka / Global Look Press

In the run-up to the latest general election, he stepped up his rhetoric and said that his party would leave the alliance with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after the election unless the desired changes to the country’s migrant policy were made. As it turned out, he never delivered on his threats.

Even though the CDU/CSU union emerged as the winner of the latest election, it still suffered a major setback by gaining just 33 percent of the vote and sinking to an all-time low in terms of public support since 1949. As a result, Merkel eventually adopted some of Seehofer’s ideas – including the refugee cap – as the two parties reached a new agreement ahead of the coalition talks.

Read more

Internal border checks must stay until EU can ‘effectively’ shield its borders – German minister

The crisis in relations seemed to be over, but it proved much more long-lived than expected. Seehofer, whose party faces regional elections in October 2018, pledged to win back the voters that turned to the populist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party against the background of the massive influx of asylum seekers.

He apparently plans to follow through on his promise to do that “head-on” as there are no signs of him toning down his rhetoric. Two days after Merkel slapped him down for challenging the place of Islam in Germany, Seehofer told the German weekly Der Spiegel that he “will not change” his politics, nor his approach to the issue.

Notably, Merkel also repeatedly vowed to win back voters from the AfD. In these endeavours she risks alienating her traditional supporters, who still believe she was right to let the asylum seekers in and are much more afraid of the surge of right-wing populism.

As a result, she apparently decided to have it both ways and appoint Seehofer to the post of Interior Minister while still maintaining her stance on the issues of refugee policy. Notably, she once again justified her decision to open the borders at the height of the refugee crisis in her first speech after the forming of the new government.

Merkel may yet turn out to be too clever by half, as the new government risks becoming deadlocked. Differences in approaches to the interior and particularly immigration policy could lead to more significant conflicts, which could leave all important decisions blocked and the government itself paralyzed.

Fragile Union

Such a situation also risks alienating another member of the current ruling coalition – the Social Democrats (SPD). After receiving only 20.5 percent of the vote in the latest elections in what was called its worst post-war performance, the SPD is going through a rough patch as it desperately seeks to re-shape itself and find people to lead it out of the crisis.

The SPD initially ruled out forming a coalition with the CDU both in the run-up to the September election and afterwards. Months later, the party eventually agreed to form yet another ‘grand coalition’ with Merkel’s Christian Democrats despite facing vehement opposition from some members, especially within the party’s youth wing.

The German parliament debates on the government declaration on March 22, 2018. © M. Popow / Global Look Press

This latest union, of a type which has become so very familiar over Merkel’s 12 years in power, may prove to be the most fragile yet. The differences between the “allies” still run deep as they have almost opposing views on such issues as refugee policy and the future of the EU.

Read more

German far-right AfD surpasses Social Democrats to become 2nd strongest party – poll

Notably, previous coalitions with Merkel have brought the SPD nothing but slumping public support. In 2005, before agreeing to their coalition with Merkel, they received more than 34 percent of the votes, falling first to some 25 percent and then to around 20 percent over the following years.

‘Prepare for turbulent years’

An internal conflict is a bad start for any ruling coalition, especially one that took so much time and effort to be formed. It hardly contributes to the new government’s authority at a time when the level of public support for the coalition partners is falling, with right-wing populists still rising in the background.

Created out of a desire to avoid early voting, fragmenting the German political system and most definitely putting an end to Merkel’s stay in power, the new government looks like a tactical union no one really wanted. At the same time, all its members appear to be planning to use it in their own interests.

“We can prepare for turbulent years,” the head of the German Left party faction in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, commented on the creation of the new government. He also called it “neither a love-match nor a match of convenience,”adding that “it is just doomed to fail.” Even though the future of the new coalition may not be quite that grim, his assessment might not be too far from the truth.

Kirill Kuznetsov, RT

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Source: https://www.rt.com/news/422224-german-coalition-internal-differences/

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The post Circular firing squad: Germany’s long-awaited government might yet prove to have critical weaknesses first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The 27-year-old singer-songwriter fled Syria’s civil war and landed on the Greek island of Lesbos in September 2015, at the peak of Europe’s migrant crisis.

His post-rock band made its way north to Germany, handing out CDs and holding impromptu gigs along the way.

Maghrebi now enjoys his new life in Berlin, a diverse city that he described as the “mecca for artists” in Europe. And for the most part, he feels at home here.

But not everything is rosy for Maghrebi. More than 18 months after arriving, he is only now beginning to learn German.

“It’s not like I come here and all of a sudden I’m a free bird,” he explained.

As for integration “it’s a really tricky term,” he mused, fidgeting with the tools of his trade. “I really don’t know if I even understand the term.”

Maghrebi’s arrival in Europe coincided with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open Germany’s borders to tens of thousands of exhausted asylum-seekers and migrants waiting at crossings from Hungary. Many were Syrians fleeing a conflict that has killed more than 400,000 and displaced millions.

“We can do this,” Merkel said at the time in an uncharacteristically decisive move that had repercussions in the federal election held in September.

Life in Germany remains a struggle for many of Maghrebi’s fellow recent arrivals. Around 1 million asylum-seekers reached the country — which had a population of 81 million — in 2015. At times more than 10,000 people were arriving daily.

But only around 16 percent of refugees are employed, according to official data published in September.

And while most of the asylum-seekers and refugees who spoke to NBC News said they felt their future lies in Germany, the majority admitted they did not yet feel a sense of belonging.

The issue of integration is a thorny one. Merkel’s government says the goal is neither multiculturalism nor assimilation.

“Integration is successful if immigrants are equal members of our society and can participate equally in social, cultural and political life,” a spokesman for Germany’s interior ministry said.

Maghrebi says he feels lucky. With his four-member band Khebez Dawle — which means “Government Bread” in Arabic — on hiatus, he is working on his first solo album.

And thanks to an anonymous donor, he recently received a scholarship to study at Bard College Berlin, a liberal arts school.

But it’s also clear that Maghrebi has still not entirely escaped Syria.

His lyrics are filled with existential questions and deal with the experience of being away from home but also — more universally — of “being an outsider in the world itself.”

“She proudly displays her fur as feathers, yet her face is smothered with alienation,” reads the English translation of a line from one new song in Arabic.

‘Rules of German life’

Ahmed Abdelkhader and his family are trying to get by in Hassloch, a town of 21,000 some 350 miles southwest of Berlin that is considered so broadly representative of Germany’s population that the consumer research industry tries out new products there.

Abdelkhader, a Kurdish barber, arrived in Germany from Syria with his wife and six daughters in the fall of 2015.

His children were all 10 or younger when they made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. The youngest, Alfa, was just 8 months old. After spending three months in a shelter, the family was relocated to Hassloch.

After more than 18 months in the town, Abdelkhader still speaks very little German, and his search for work has proved difficult.

Abdelkhader, 37, has little formal education and relies on the help of fellow Syrian Ghivara Mohamad to translate from Arabic to German.

“It’s hard to teach him German when he asks, ‘What does a verb mean?’” said Mohamad, trying to explain the challenges his friend faces.

Abdelkhader’s daughters seem to be faring better. The eldest, Amal, now 12, attends school and speaks passable German — though she says she doesn’t have many friends.

While Amal’s parents are happy she is attending classes, they find the emphasis on sexual education disturbing and say it jars with their Muslim faith.

Some 150 refugees and 32 asylum-seekers live in the town, according to officials. That number has fluctuated over the past two years, with as many as 260 asylum-seekers calling it home at one point.

“The fact that you don’t really feel refugees in the village shows that integration is working,” said Ralf Trösch, the local official in charge of social affairs.

But it hasn’t all been easy. A homeless man was killed by an asylum-seeker, and there have been allegations of drug abuse, officials said.

Today’s challenges are more mundane. Trösch said one difficulty newcomers faced was neighbors’ complaints that they’re too loud after 10 p.m. Others included explaining the importance Germans place on punctuality and recycling.

“We’re now trying to teach refugees some rules of German life to limit problems,” Trösch said.

Many residents of Hassloch said they were proud of Merkel’s decision to take in refugees, but others said they knew people who were resentful.

A single asylum-seeker who no longer lives in a shelter officially receives 354 euros ($416) a month from the government, while a person formally given refugee status gets 409 euros ($480), according to local officials.

But Trösch cautioned that once you have accounted for rent, health insurance and administrative costs, the figure was more like 1,000 euros ($1,175).

“There is antipathy among some people. I listen to it everyday,” said Harald Sauer, who runs a bar off the town’s market square. “They see refugees walking past with Nike shoes and complain that they’re getting free money from the state.”

The far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, harnessing hostility toward foreigners, surged to third place in September’s federal election, winning 13 percent of the vote. The World Jewish Congress has called the AfD “a disgraceful reactionary movement which recalls the worst of Germany’s past.”

AfD campaign posters played heavily on the influx of refugees and migrants.

“Burqas?” read one poster picturing German girls frolicking on the beach. “We prefer bikinis.”

Another showed a picture of a pregnant woman. “New Germans? We will make them ourselves,” it read.

The party has also capitalized on incidents of violence involving newcomers, like one in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015 in which gangs of mostly foreign men sexually assaulted women out celebrating. Some of the men were asylum-seekers.

Islamist terror — such as a deadly truck attack last December by a Tunisian national who targeted a Christmas market in Berlin — has also provided fodder to far-right nationalists.

While Merkel won her fourth term as chancellor in September, the AfD’s showing has prompted critics to argue that her so-called willkommenskultur — or welcome culture toward refugees — had inadvertently reopened the door to the far-right in Germany.

Some residents in Hassloch, however, have taken it upon themselves to shepherd refugees through the integration process.

Elisabeth Heine, 66, a retiree who had bumped into Abdelkhader in the market square and asked about the progress of his job search, said that she and her husband had somewhat adopted his family.

“The children call us ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa,’” she said.

Heine said Germans can’t expect refugees to immediately understand the intricacies of German life. “We help him navigate all the bureaucracy,” she said of Abdelkhader.

Reunited

Feras Rashid is all too familiar with the frustrations of German bureaucracy.

A 25-year-old Syrian Kurd, Rashid said he was forced to sleep on the floor of a Munich registration center for three days after arriving in August 2015. An economics graduate, Rashid had left his wife behind in Syria, and he was moved through several camps before landing in one outside the industrial town of Kassel.

“The first year was so difficult because I didn’t have anything to do other than waiting for asylum,” Rashid said. “I was always thinking about my wife, about family, about the situation in Aleppo.”

Rashid said the camps were generally comfortable and the staff polite, but not always. He recalled that on one occasion, having asked for a pillow, he was quickly rebuffed. “They told me that the only pillow I could have was my ass,” he said.

Now living with his pregnant wife, Nazly, who joined him in Germany last November, Rashid works part time in a supermarket while studying for his master’s degree.

Marco Wenzel, the store’s owner, said he was pleased with Rashid’s work.

“It’s about qualifications, not background,” said Wenzel, explaining that he never would have hired Rashid simply because he was a refugee. “To me he is a Syrian student, not a refugee.”

Rashid said he now has friends and feels at home in Germany — though he still marvels at the variety of vegetables and bread.

In August, he published an open letter in the German newspaper Bild appealing to refugees to “be thankful and behave.”

“We have to show them that we’re good people, that we will integrate with you and that we will be one society,” Rashid said.

‘We have kind German friends’

Afghan teen Narges Tavakkoli stood stretching with a group of other asylum-seekers before a three-mile run around the open expanse of Berlin’s former Tempelhof Airport.

A sea of Germans wearing fluorescent sports gear chatted outside the Nazi-built facility, which closed about a decade ago.

Once used to house prisoners of war, the site became one of the country’s largest emergency shelters for new arrivals in the fall of 2015.

At its peak, some 2,700 asylum-seekers lived there. Now there are 170 residents remaining, most of them refugees.

The dormitories inside the hangars are about to close and those still living there are set to move to new temporary housing on the former airfield.

Narges readied herself. “Drei, zwei, eins …” called the starter, and she was off. Whoosh.

Narges, 16, is training to be a sports instructor, but she says she really wants to be an astronaut.

She is part of a program for asylum-seekers that aims to help them meet Germans, establish a foothold in the community and make a small amount of money on the side.

Narges said she was generally happy in Berlin and was particularly pleased that girls and boys had equal rights in Germany. In Afghanistan, she “did not do sports — here I do lots of sport. I’m proud of myself.”

But she said life in the Tempelhof camp was difficult.

On the day NBC News met her parents, they were moving from the shelter to one farther out of the city.

“Life is very difficult for us here,” said Narges’ mother, Zeinab, adding that the situation was not suitable for a family of six. “There’s no door on the room, we have no privacy, and now that the cold is coming, mice and birds are coming into the hangars.”

Back in the Afghan city of Herat, the family owned a carpet factory that was helped by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

But the American assistance caused the Taliban to start asking questions, said Narges’ father, Hashim Tavakkoli. The family was forced to leave after the Taliban accused them of colluding with the U.S.

“They said they would kill me because they thought I was helping the Americans,” the 36-year-old father of four said.

The family left everything behind. Hashim now volunteers as a mechanic every morning in an effort to meet Germans and simply to have something to do, he said.

But it is clear his mind is restless.

“Wherever I walk in Berlin I measure how much time, how much work it would take to carpet the street,” he said, using his hands to simulate measuring. “I work as a mechanic, but really I’m a carpet maker.”

His wife said they were lucky to be in Germany. “My children are in school, they are learning,” Zeinab said. “We have kind German friends.”

As she spoke, a German couple arrived in a van to help the family move to their new home.

Now what worries Zeinab the most is not being able to stay. The family has already been rejected from Norway, fleeing to Germany days before they were due to be deported.

Their situation here is no less precarious. In recent months, Merkel has targeted Afghans for deportation to discourage migrants from making the dangerous journey, and in an effort to be seen as clamping down on immigration.

The family has been waiting more than six months to hear if their asylum request will be granted.

“I don’t want to have to tell my children they can’t stay again,” Zeinab said.

A high-wire act

Merkel finds herself walking a tightrope on immigration.

On one side sit the Bahnhofsklatscher — or station clappers — who welcomed asylum-seekers and migrants as they arrived in train stations across the country in the fall of 2015 and who have since rallied to help them get back on their feet.

On the other side stand the Wutbürger, or angry citizens, who are concerned that the sheer numbers of newcomers will have a negative impact on their daily lives.

Pressure from them — and the AfD’s strong showing at the ballot box — has forced Merkel to concede groundto the more right-wing factions of her conservative alliance.

Last month, her party agreed that Germany would not let in more than 200,000 people a year on humanitarian grounds in an effort to unify her conservative bloc ahead of negotiations to form a new coalition government.

Last week, those coalition talks broke down over policy disagreements on migration controls and the environment.

But as Germany considers how many more refugees the world’s fourth-biggest economy can handle, it is also confronting how it treats those already here.

So is integration happening? Maghrebi, the Syrian musician, isn’t certain.

“Everyone says ‘integration,’ but everyone has their subjective meaning for the word,” he said.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germany-grapples-integration-after-its-opening-borders-n810361

The post Germany grapples with integration after opening its borders first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

‘History shows European financial stability may be a bridge too far, leaving investors in extreme peril when it fails’

It is not one of the market’s most attractive traits when it ends up extremely long on bravado and exceedingly short on memory. It can be a fatal flaw when things start to go wrong. Europe has been to hell and back in recent years, when existential crisis almost ripped the heart out of the euro zone and the single currency. But now European financial markets have turned into one the major darlings for global players, it begs the question whether investors could end up long and wrong again.

You would have thought investors got their fingers so badly burnt in the wake of the 2008 global financial crash, when European unity, economic well-being, financial stability and the euro currency almost went to the wall that the golden rule of ‘once bitten, twice shy’ would have been a paramount investment axiom for investors.

The precipitous collapse in credit ratings for many of the euro zone troubled economies during the dog days of the 2009-2013 European crisis, underlined correct risk assessment at the time, especially when the only willing buyer of their distressed debt was the European Central Bank in stability-driven, special market operations. The key question is what makes investors more confident now about Europe’s outlook. Germany holds the key and last week’s national elections could mark a symbolic turning point.

Nearly a decade ago, the weaker and heavily-indebted euro zone economies, unfortunately saddled with the pejorative label PIIGS – namely Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain – were struggling to contain ballooning budget deficits and mountainous government debt exposures. They were close to collapse.

The global crash tipped investor confidence over the brink, investors rushed for the exits, credit spreads exploded and the European monetary union was close to extinction, same as the euro, whose days looked numbered. It was only a strong show of political unity from Europe backed up by significant bailout money and the ECB acting as lender of last resort that the day was saved.

Critically, German intervention at that time proved decisive. It had to be, especially when Chancellor Angela Merkel discovered the frightening exposure of Germany’s financial system to high-risk European investments. Had Merkel allowed peripheral European markets to fail, Germany’s banks and investment funds would have been dragged into a devastating contagion and default.

Today, Europe still remains a teetering financial edifice, propped up by ECB money and German guarantees of political and financial backing. Deep infusions of quantitative easing money have helped rebuild economic confidence and restore financial stability but little has been done to solve the region’s deeply troubling systemic faults.

Monetary super-stimulus has catapulted Germany’s economy to great strength, but the need for continuing austerity and debt restructuring in the problem economies still holds back European growth potential overall. Budget deficits are running far too high and government debt piles are unsustainable in the long term. Debt-to-GDP ratios running close to 175 per cent in Greece and 160 per cent in Italy cannot go on forever without the ECB and Germany picking up the tab.

And here lies the rub. European political unity, monetary union and the survival of the euro are beholden to continuing support from Germany, but that endorsement is now cast in doubt after September 24’s indecisive election result which saw the anti-Brussels, populist far-right AfD make big gains to third biggest party in the German parliament. It could mark a turning point in German politics which could shake the centrepiece of European cohesion and unity to its roots.

It could be an important harbinger for global investors. If Germany begins to drift towards political populism, national introspection and greater Euro-scepticism, then you can forget notions of closer economic integration, fiscal union and a common debt market. In which case, the argument for European convergence trades and the narrowing of bond yields in riskier markets like Greece, Italy and Spain towards German government debt will fall apart.

Bets on a stronger euro will take a hard hit too, swept aside by a rush into safe haven currencies. The euro may be on a winning streak versus the weaker dollar right now, but this could quickly unravel if investors really panic. If German politics are a game-changer and market sentiment crumbles, the euro is in trouble.

Global investors need to take a log hard look at Europe’s deepening political complexity. History shows European financial stability may be a bridge too far, leaving investors in extreme peril when it fails.

David Brown is the chief executive of New View Economics

Source: http://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2113724/germany-may-be-biggest-threat-european-stability

The post Germany may be the biggest threat to European stability first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.