She’s no bootin’ Teuton
Merkel keeps open borders after attacks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Thursday to do “everything humanly possible” to keep her country safe amid a slew of terror attacks by asylum-seekers — but rebuffed calls to reverse her welcoming stance toward refugees.
Merkel, who interrupted her summer vacation to address reporters in Berlin, said the attacks were “shocking, oppressive and depressing” but not a sign that authorities had lost control, Agence FrancePresse reported.
She said the assailants “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need.”
The German leader faced harsh criticism for her decision last year to welcome refugees. More than 1 million asylum-seekers were registered in Germany in 2015.
“We will manage this,” she said, while stressing that Germany will “stick to our principles” and provide shelter to those who deserve it.
She called for a better “early warning system” against signs of radicalization, faster action to create a center to help crack encrypted messages and better intelligence sharing among countries.
Her comments came as officials in Bavaria — the scene of three of four recent attacks — pledged to hire hundreds of extra cops and urged tougher background checks on asylum-seekers.
“People are scared, completely understandably, and right now they need a credible answer from politicians,” said Horst Seehofer, the minister president of Bavaria, adding that Merkel and her administration were “dodging the issue.”
The “policy of open borders cannot be tolerated any more,” he said.
Merkel’s muted response was in stark contrast to that of French President François Hollande, who announced Thursday that France is planning to create a national guard to protect its citizens after recent attacks at a church in Normandy and in Nice.
Hollande, whose government has come under fire for alleged security lapses, said parliamentary consultations about creating the Guard would begin in September, AFP reported.
Two attacks in a weeklong period starting July 18 were the first to be claimed by ISIS in Germany — an ax rampage by a refugee from either Pakistan or Afghanistan on a train near Wuerzburg that wounded five and a suicide bombing by a Syrian refugee that injured 15 in Ansbach.
Both attackers, who were killed, arrived in the country as asylum-seekers over the past two years.
“That two men who came to us as refugees are responsible for the acts in Wuerzburg and Ansbach mocks the country that took them in,” Merkel said.