Ramming a semi-truck into a crowded Berlin Christmas market Dec. 19 killing 12 , injuring 46, 62-year-old German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces new criticism for her open-door policy with Mideast refugees. Considered a hero by left wing groups sympathetic to Mideast and North African refugees, Merkel’s open-door policy has backfired with each terrorist attack on German soil. President-elect Donald Trump warned Merkel and other European Union leaders about the dangers of un-vetted Mideast refugees seeking asylum or work in Europe. Merkel’s pro-refugee policy, pressuring EU states to take their “fair share” of refugees, prompted the June 23 Brexit vote, pushing Great Britain out of the EU. Merkel bent over backwards proving Germany’s the most open immigrant-friendly country in the EU, only to watch her policy backfire, creating problems for her 2017 re-election.
Controlling the Bundestag, German parliament, with a governing coalition from Merkel’s Berlin-based center-right Christian Democratic Union and Horst Seehofer’s right-wing Munich-based Christian Social Union, Merkel faces a potential mutiny before German elections Aug. 27 to Oct. 22, 2017. Merkel showed her political savvy promoting her potential 60-year-old rival German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir to president for a six-year term starting Feb. 1, 2017. Running against left-leaning Social Democratic Party candidate Sigman Gabriel and Katja Kipping’s left-wing Party, Merkel has the 300-plus seats needed for re-election. If Seehofer bails out, Merkel would not have the parliamentary votes for a governing coalition Hit by a train ax attack, mass shooting in Munich, machete attack and suicide bombing in Ansbach, Merkel’s been under pressure to change her policy.
Yesterday’s truck attack in Berlin threatens to split off Horst Seehofer CSU from Merkel’s governing coalition unless Merkel changes her open-door policy. ‘I know it would be especially hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that the person who committed this act was someone who sought protection and asylum,” said Merkel, referring to the unknown truck-driver that eluded German authorities. “Our investigators assume that the truck was deliberately steered into the crowd at the Christian market at Breitscheidplatz,” Berlin police said. Berlin’s death toll war far less than an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] truck ramming in Nice, France July 14, killing 87, injuring 434. Merkel admitted after terrorist attacks back in July that her open-door policy needed some revision. Yesterday’s terrorist attack raises more questions about Merkel’s liberal refugee policy.
Trump’s rise to power sends a loud message across the pond that the new administration will be far more security-conscious than the Obama administration. Former Democratic nominee Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton planned to follow in Merkel’s lead, allowing a 550% increase in Syrian refugees into the U.S. Under Trump, Obama and Hillary’s liberal immigration policy comes to a screeching halt. “There are still months to go before the [German] elections, and she [Merkel] has plenty of time to show that the government is on top of the terrorist threat,” said Ian Bond, foreign policy director at the Center for European Reform. Bond thinks Merkel can survive recent terrorist attacks as long as they’re not repeated before parliamentary elections. Backing Syrian rebels to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Merkel caused the refugee problem.
With Russian Turkish Ambassador Andrey Karlov assassinated by an Islamic extremist yesterday, radical Islam has dominated the headlines. Recorded by AP photographer Burhan Ozbilici, the world watched the Russian ambassador shot in the back, while his 23-year-old Turkish assassin Mevlut Mert Altintas screamed “Allahu Akbar” and “Don’t forget Aleppo.” Merkel’s policy, endorsed by the EU, backed terrorists like Altintas seeking to topple Syria’s Shiite government. Since March 15, 2011, the Saudis, U.S. and Turkey have funded-and-armed terrorists in Syriaa to topple al-Assad’s Damascus government. President Barack Obama spent six-years arming opposition forces to topple al-Assad, creating the worst humanitarian disaster since WWII. With over 300,000 dead, 12 million displaced to neighboring countries and the EU, Merkel and Obama have blood on their hands.
German voters must think twice about giving Merkel six more years when she’s one of the primary architects of the Syrian War. If Merkel didn’t back toppling al-Assad, it wouldn’t have caused the mass exodus that crippled Europe, eventually leading to Great Britain’s exit from the EU. Christian Social Union chief Horst Seehofer needs to think hard about joining Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union’s governing coalition. Whatever backfired with Merkel’s liberal refugee policy, it pales in comparison to her backing the Saudi, U.S. and Turkey proxy war to topple al-Assad. Once Russia joined the fight Sept. 30, 2015 to save al-Assad, Merkel should have recognized her destructive policy of backing unknown rebel groups to topple the Damascus government. Merkel created the refugee crisis backing rebel groups, causing the most disruptive crisis in the EU’s 23-year-old history. Watching terrorism strike Berlin, Merkel’s failed policy practically destroyed the EU.
