Merkel insists no change of course on migrant crisis

Guy Chazan - Financial Times

©Reuters

An asylum seeker takes a selfie with Angela Merkel near a refugee camp in Berlin last year

German chancellor Angela Merkel said she had no “Plan B” for solving the refugee crisis, and insisted there was nothing that would make her change course — despite growing popular anger in Germany at her government’s handling of the issue.

Speaking on a talkshow on Germany’s ARD TV channel, Ms Merkel said she could “understand” a recent poll which showed 81 per cent believed her government had lost control of the migrant crisis. But she rejected the proposal backed by many in Germany to introduce an upper limit on migration. There was no point, she said, in making a promise she couldn’t keep.
“I have no plan B,” she said. “There’s no sense in working on two [plans] at the same time.”

Ms Merkel also admitted that the refugee crisis was the worst she had faced in her 10 years as chancellor, dwarfing even the eurozone debt problem. 

The interview came at a time when the chancellor is finding herself increasingly isolated, both at home and abroad, over her open-door refugee policy. Austria has in recent days joined nine neighbouring states in imposing border controls, in a move that put in doubt the future of the Schengen passport-free travel zone and raised fears that tens of thousands of refugees will be bottled up in Greece. Athens recalled its ambassador to Vienna in protest at the move.

Ms Merkel criticised the Austrian action, saying Greece had been let down. “We didn’t keep Greece in the euro in order to leave it in the lurch like that,” she said. “That is not my Europe.”

I have no plan B. There’s no sense in working on two [plans] at the same time- Angela Merkel

The chancellor also rejected the suggestion that Austria and its neighbours had “solved her problem for her” since the number of migrants entering Germany had fallen significantly since its neighbours choked off the flow across their borders.

The interview came two weeks before elections in three German states which are emerging as a referendum on Ms Merkel's refugee policy. Polls suggest the Eurosceptic Alternative für Deutschland, which wants tough restrictions on immigration, could see big gains.  

Despite the flurry of unilateral moves by European governments, Ms Merkel is still insisting on an EU plan to solve the crisis, involving €3bn of aid and other perks for Turkey in exchange for a crackdown on human trafficking into Greece; moves to strengthen the EU’s external border; and a scheme to resettle some 160,000 migrants now in Greece and Italy across the EU. A Nato mission was deployed last week to help the Greek and Turkish coastguards stop human smuggling across the Aegean Sea.

We didn’t keep Greece in the euro in order to leave it in the lurch like that. That is not my Europe- Angela Merkel

A crucial EU-Turkey summit on March 7 is being widely seen as the last chance to revive the common EU response before warmer spring weather leads to a big upsurge in new arrivals across the Mediterranean.
Germany’s interior minister Thomas de Maizière said last week he wanted to see a significant reduction in refugee numbers by the March 7 meeting. But the flurry of national moves in recent days suggests that time might be running out for the common EU policy Ms Merkel and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are advocating.
But Ms Merkel said she still had faith the EU plan would work and “sees nothing” that would make her change course.