Don’t be cold-hearted to our 1.1m refugees, Merkel begs Germans
THE influx of more than a million refugees should be welcomed as an ‘opportunity’, Angela Merkel told Germans last night.
The country’s leader used her New Year address to urge citizens not to have ‘coldness in their hearts’ but to embrace the 1.1million newcomers.
Mrs Merkel has been blamed for fuelling the European migrant crisis by promising to welcome those who make it to Germany.
She was initially praised by Germans for her decision to allow many of those escaping war and poverty to stay. But with the numbers of migrants from the Middle East and Africa reaching more than a million, doubts have grown and her popularity has suffered.
A record 3,771 refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last year. Yet Mrs Merkel yesterday stood firm about the need to embrace migration, urging Germans to see the challenge as an ‘opportunity for tomorrow’.
The chancellor, who grew up in East Germany when it was behind the Iron Curtain, said in yesterday’s TV address: ‘Next year is about one thing in particular: our cohesion. It is important we don’t allow ourselves to be divided.’
In a direct riposte to those staging anti-immigration rallies, she said: ‘It is crucial not to follow those who, with coldness or even hatred in their hearts, lay a sole claim to what it means to be German and seek to exclude others.’
The efforts to cope with the challenges would be worth it in the end because ‘countries have always benefited from successful immigration, both economically and socially’, she said. ‘I am convinced that, handled properly, today’s great task presented by the influx and the integration of so many people is an opportunity for tomorrow.
‘There has rarely been a year in which we were challenged so much to follow up our words with deeds.’
She added: ‘There is no question that the influx of so many people will keep demanding much of us. It will take time, effort and money.’
Mrs Merkel’s popularity has taken a battering at home as a result of the influx of refugees. She has vowed to reduce migrant numbers this year and is trying to convince other EU members to take more.
And Turkey, which acts as a gateway to Europe for many migrants, has been promised billions by EU leaders to help protect its borders.
Three German regional elections to be held in March will serve as key tests for Mrs Merkel, with opinion polls already predicting a surge in support for the populist antiimmigration movement AfD.
Former Eastern bloc countries have so far shown no signs of relenting to EU pressure to take more migrants. Czech president Milos Zeman last week called the refugee influx ‘an organised invasion’.
And Hungary’s government has filed a legal challenge against the EU’s plan to distribute 160,000 asylum seekers under a quota system.