The post Now Italy is even banning its OWN ships from docking if they have rescued migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s momentous decision three years ago to open her nation’s borders to refugees has come to define her political career. Now the policy is threatening to end it as biting internal politics over asylum increasingly surface.

The threat to Ms. Merkel’s approach is emanating from an unlikely source. Members of a key Bavaria-based conservative sister party to the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are pressuring her to sharply draw down the open-borders policy.

In a push spearheaded by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and Bavarian Minister President Markus Soeder, the CDU-allied Christian Social Union has given Ms. Merkel a mandate to take action within two weeks.

If she fails to develop a plan with European Union partners to reform the bloc’s asylum policies by that time, Mr. Seehofer and Mr. Soeder say, they will take unilateral action and begin implementing a policy to turn away asylum-seekers at the German border.

Such a development is likely to deal a crushing blow to Ms. Merkel’s fragile centrist political coalition just three months after its inauguration.

Analysts say the situation could suddenly spell the end for Ms. Merkel, who is Europe’s longest-serving democratically elected leader, having held the chancellorship since 2005.

Pushing her out could recast the whole future of the EU at a moment when eastern members are increasingly hostile to bloc’s refugee policies.

“It would mean that the positions on the fringes of the European Union in Eastern and Central Europe to not accept any refugees will become stronger, which would be a potential end to German-led European policy and German-led refugee policy as we know it,” said Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist in Berlin.

“It’s like the domino theory in a way if the coalition falls apart: First one stone falls, then another and another,” Mr. Neugebauer said.

The Christian Social Union has been vehemently against the open-door refugee policy, which was implemented in a manner that effectively ignored EU regulations that require refugees to undergo the asylum process in the first country of their arrival.

Ms. Merkel’s decision to allow unrestricted travel for asylum-seekers brought more than 1 million newcomers to Germany, predominantly from the Middle East and North Africa, overwhelming German authorities and creating cultural and political backlash.

The policy won support from Ms. Merkel’s core base when it went into effect in 2015, as violent conflicts in Syria and Iraq were spawning a surge of refugees toward Europe. But it has rankled many Germans since.

Last year, the right-wing, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, entered German parliament for the first time with 12.6 percent of the vote. Support for the previously fringe party had effectively tripled since 2013, when the AfD failed to even enter parliament.

The party’s popularity has risen on the heels of a series of government blunders tied to the overall refugee situation. One was a December 2016 terrorist attack carried out by a migrant who many Germans believed should have been deported. Another came with the recent discovery that authorities had botched thousands of asylum applications in the city-state of Bremen.

In an attempt to counter the AfD’s rise, Ms. Merkel and her centrist government have walked back some aspects of the open-door refugee policy — most notably by increasing deportations, allowing only limited migration of refugees’ families and forming bilateral deals with outside partners such as Turkey in an attempt to halt the flow of migrants toward Germany.

Such actions have greatly decreased the number of arrivals, but Mr. Seehofer ramped up pressure in recent weeks to toughen German immigration policies further by beefing up border security and reinstating the European regulations mandating that refugees remain in the country where they are registered.

Ms. Merkel accepted the border moves but rejected the reinstatement of the EU policies. Instead, she has called for wider, international measures that would create a unified European asylum policy to replace country-by-country actions.

“I’m deeply convinced, whenever we talk about the dangers of the European Union, that it’s first and foremost about the foreign policy polyphony that we have and secondly that we still don’t have a common strategy to answer the question of mastering migration,” the chancellor said in a June 10 appearance on the German political talk show “Anne Will.”

“If Europe doesn’t accomplish that,” she said, “then Europe is in danger.”

But instead of getting in line with her, leaders of Ms. Merkel’s sister political party have dug in their heels. Mr. Seehofer, in particular, has bucked the chancellor. He said in an interview published Thursday by the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that if Ms. Merkel tries to stop his push for tighter immigration controls, he and his Christian Social Union allies will end their coalition with her.

“If you dismiss a minister who only cares about the safety and order of his country, that would be unprecedented,” Mr. Seehofer said. “I am chairman of the CSU, one of three parties in this coalition, and I act with full backing of my party. If the person in the chancellery is dissatisfied with the work of the federal minister of the interior, then she should end the coalition.”

The threat could force Ms. Merkel to curb her divisive refugee policies ahead of the Christian Social Union’s tough battle against the AfD in regional elections in Bavaria in October, said Olaf Boehnke, a senior adviser in Berlin with Rasmussen Global, a Brussels-based think tank.

“Seehofer is trying to kill two birds with one stone,” Mr. Boehnke said. “The CSU is under enormous pressure in Bavaria, and it’s in his own interest to say, ‘I’m the strong Bavarian guy in Berlin.’”

Ms. Merkel, a notorious behind-the-scenes and international political operator, is now seen to be scrambling to bring an EU-level migration deal to the fore. She has even agreed to French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to erect a common eurozone budget, a move many saw as a concession to get Mr. Macron’s support for a revamped asylum policy at major migration summits this weekend and next at EU headquarters in Brussels.

But the prospects for such a revamped policy may be slim because Italy, Hungary, Poland and Austria are all now led by right-wing, anti-immigrant forces bent on bucking a Merkel-led bloc and stopping refugees at all costs.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte clashed with Ms. Merkel on Wednesday as Italy signaled that it simply won’t agree to any new EU migration plan if the bloc doesn’t prioritize measures to assist Rome in dealing with its own surge of migrants. The Mediterranean nation is the leading point of arrival for refugees fleeing unrest in Libya by boat.

“[Ms. Merkel] is trying to practice the same magic and come to a compromise. She has to, or else she’ll lose all support,” said Mr. Boehnke. “It will be a hard task this time around. She has to acknowledge that the populists are very successful in stimulating this atmosphere that we have to urgently do something about migration.”

If Ms. Merkel isn’t able to stanch those forces and make progress, then the coalition ruling Germany will end, said Mr. Neugebauer. That would not only provide more footing for the AfD to gain ground by attacking Ms. Merkel and her political partners as incompetent, he said, but it also would lend weight to forces within the EU that have sought to dismantle the liberal, German-led status quo within the bloc.

“[It] would be a danger for the German democracy and everything that stands behind it if she’s not able to implement something,” Mr. Neugebauer said.

Source: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/21/angela-merkels-open-borders-policy-could-spell-end/

The post Open borders policy could spell end for Angela Merkel in Germany first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

MAINZ, Germany — Not even 100 days after she negotiated her way to a fourth term as German leader, Angela Merkel is mired in a political crisis that underscores Europe’s divisions over immigration amid a surge in populism.

The German chancellor faces a showdown with her own interior minister that threatens not only her fragile ruling alliance but also her European Union-wide vision of cooperation to deal with the migrant crisis.

The world’s most powerful woman will embark on a weekend of talks ahead of a Monday meeting that could decide her future — and potentially signal the end of the Merkel era. She has been in power since 2005.

Along with French President Emmanuel Macron, Merkel is seen as one of the last bastions of European liberal democracy amid the rise of populism across the continent.

Merkel may be forced to make a U-turn on her open-door policy which has already been scaled back since Germany opened its borders to welcome around 1 million asylum-seekers in 2015. At times more than 10,000 people were arriving daily in the country, which had a population of around 81 million.

Migrants walk from the main station in Dortmund, Germany, in September 2015.Martin Meissner / AP file

Her refugee policy is widely blamed for a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which became the main opposition party after last September’s inconclusive election.

Gemany’s political turmoil comes amid a rise in populism and anti-immigration sentiment across Europe, including in neighbors such as Poland, Austria and Hungary.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a conservative critic of Merkel’s migration policy, this week pushed for an “axis of the willing” among Austria, Germany and Italy to fight illegal migration.

It is a view shared by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who wants to reject migrants at his country’s border if they have already registered in other E.U. states to the south.

In March, Seehofer told a newspaper that “Islam does not belong to Germany.” Seehofer is a member of Merkel’s CSU Bavarian allies, who are further to the right than her own Christian Democrats (CDU). He has also vowed to implement a “master plan for quicker deportations.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition is at risk after clashes with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer over Germany’s refugee policy.Carsten Koall / Getty Images

Keen not to antagonize Germany’s neighbors, Merkel prefers an E.U.-wide solution and wants to wait until the outcome of a summit of the bloc’s leaders on June 28. She has warned that Seehofer’s plan could shift the migrant burden onto countries such as Greece and Italy, where she is already unpopular for her economic policies.

“I personally think illegal migration is one of the big challenges for the European Union, so I don’t believe we should act unilaterally,” she said Thursday. “We should not act in an uncoordinated way, and we should not act at the expense of third parties.”

However, lawmakers from the CSU have backed Seehofer, who said he might defy Merkel by going ahead with his plan next week without her agreement.

If defied, Markel could be forced to fire Seehofer, or lead her CDU to split up the parliamentary bloc in which they have cooperated with the CSU since 1949. That would leave her coalition without a majority and could result in another election.

“Merkel is caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Thomas Walde, co-host of the political affairs show “Berlin Direkt” at NBC’s German partner channel ZDF. “She could either revoke her own policy, which would in effect mean that she is correcting herself and that everything she did so far was wrong. She cannot possibly do that because then she would be a lame duck in her position.”

He added: “Or, she could fire the minister of the interior on Monday, if he were to act. But then her coalition partner would leave the coalition, which would leave her without a majority in Parliament, which would be tough. She could try to go for a little while, but in effect that might lead to new elections.”

“She is fighting various fires in Europe.”

It is unclear whether Merkel would run again should German voters be sent back to the ballot box.

The CSU’s hardline stance on immigration comes ahead of regional elections in Germany. In the Bavarian heartland, along Germany’s southern border, the migrant crisis is a crucial issue and the party fears anti-immigration sentiment could bring to an end its decades-old dominance of Bavaria’s government.

However, others have criticized the CSU for putting its interests ahead of national unity.

Malu Dreyer, the premier of the Rhineland-Pfalz region, called the CSU’s tactics “scandalous.”

“The CSU is risking a lot, namely the stability of this government,” she said Thursday.

Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany’s center-left Social Democrats, accused Bavaria’s CSU governor, Markus Soeder, of “behaving like a bonsai Trump.”

“We won’t allow the panic of the [Bavarian] state government to take all of Germany and Europe hostage,” said Nahles.

Gero Neugebauer, professor of politics at the Free University Berlin, said Seehofer’s CSU wanted to change the law that automatically guarantees asylum to anyone facing persecution overseas, replacing it with the power to accept or reject asylum applications.

However, the dispute is also a power struggle over who dominates German politics.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel holds a news conference in Berlin on Friday.Markus Schreiber / AP

“That is why the dispute is in substance about [migration policy], but it is also a conflict between people,” Neugebauer said, adding Seehofer is hoping to emerge as the winner in a confrontation with Merkel.

It cannot be excluded that a collapse of the coalition government “could be imminent,” Neugebauer warned, but added that that would pose risks “which are higher for the CSU than for Merkel’s CDU party.”

Sophia Besch, a research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank, said Merkel has become more isolated on the European stage but her patience and experience could ensure her political survival.

“She is fighting various fires in Europe. She has the Dutch and the northern and Scandinavian countries on her side, but she is certainly not strong enough to be called the undisputed leader of Europe as she might have been,” Besch added. “She’s great at surviving these things, in part because of her calm approach, which is in stark contrast to the posturing in the CSU and the ‘Merkel must go’ faction of the CDU.”

Merkel and Macron are among the few remaining European leaders to explicitly shun populism and the protectionist trade policies of President Donald Trump, and share a vision of a stronger, more unified E.U.-wide foreign policy.

Macron warned in March that the European Union faces a “civil war” and “fascination with the illiberal” as nationalist governments in Poland and Hungary turn away from liberal democracy and appealed to Europeans not to “sleepwalk” into authoritarianism.

Andy Eckardt reported from Mainz, Germany, and Alastair Jamieson from London.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/germany-s-merkel-faces-political-crisis-over-migrant-policy-n883441

The post Germany’s Merkel faces political crisis over migrant policy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Around 50 refugees attacked police after they attempted to stop a fight at a migrant center, authorities in the eastern German city of Dresden said on Monday.

Police were called after security guards struggled to contain a dispute about food between two migrants from Georgia on Friday evening.

“As a result, about 50 residents gathered and attacked officers by throwing lit cigarettes, then kicking and beating them,” a statement from Dresden police said.

Read more: Germany: Aid groups slam planned asylum centers as unsuitable for children

“One attacker tried to attack the officers with an iron bar from his bed,” they added.

Two officers and a security guard were injured during the incident.

Additional police units were called to help bring the situation under control, officials said.

Four suspects — all of them Georgian nationals aged 17, 20, 27 and 42 — were detained on Friday for breach of the peace.  Police said one of them was due to be deported following the arrest, while three others were taken to prison.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer was expected to visit Dresden later on Monday to discuss security and migration with the Saxony state premier and interior minister.

Germany has converted hundreds of buildings around the country to house asylum seekers in the wake of the migrant crisis

Read more: Germany proposes plan to repatriate 30,000 Nigerians

Following Ellwangen stand-off 

Friday’s violence follows a stand-off in Baden-Württemberg, earlier this month, where police were set upon by a crowd of 150 migrants after they tried to collect a 23-year-old failed asylum seeker, for deportation. That incident took place in the town of Ellwangen, between Nuremberg and Stuttgart.

The refugee group then started attacking the patrol vehicles, and harassed and punched the officers, before giving them an ultimatum to free the man.

Due to the seriousness of the threat, police at the scene said they ordered a security guard to find the key to unlock the asylum seeker’s handcuffs. He then fled the scene and it took investigators several days to locate him.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/dozens-of-refugees-police-clash-in-german-city-of-dresden/a-43961032

The post Dozens of refugees, police clash in German city of Dresden first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.