Donald Trump weighs in on German immigration debate as Angela Merkel accepts deadline
US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the immigration debate in Germany, saying that “the people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition.”
Trump’s comments came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to find a solution to the migrant issue by the end of the month, with interior minister Horst Seehofer backing down from his threat to bypass her on border controls – for now.
According to German news agency DPA, Merkel accepted the two-week deadline set by Seehofer earlier this morning, and promised to find a Europe-wide agreement over refugees at summit in Brussels on June 28 and 29.
Continuing on his anti-migrant tirade, Trump also said that crime in Germany was “way up” and called EU’s immigration policy a “big mistake.”
The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
However, as the Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe pointed out, the American leader’s claims are largely unfounded:
1. Crime in Germany hit a 30-year low in March2. Merkel remains the most popular politician in Germany3. AfD flat on pre-election polling; pro-immigration Greens up4. Trump-lite strategy has seen CSU fall in polls5. 2/3 Germans consider it “pure electioneering”Otherwise: 👍 https://t.co/D1MEsKyLMC— Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) June 18, 2018
Read more: Angela Merkel ‘handed ultimatum’ over immigration
The political crisis in Germany erupted after Seehofer demanded that the German Chancellor agree to European rules on migration, and begin refusing migrants who arrive in other EU countries.
The interior minister, who is also leader of the more conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, made the ultimatum earlier today, demanding that the Chancellor end Germany’s open-door asylum policy that has been in place since 2015.
The challenge represents one of the biggest rebukes to Merkel’s leadership since she first took power 13 years ago, and suggests that the anti-migrant sentiment seen in Italy and Hungary is spreading across the EU.
Read more: Merkel wins her fourth term in office as Social Democrats approve coalition
In an editorial for German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Seehofer said he hoped the EU summit later this month would “finally reach agreements acknowledging Germany’s [refugee] burden, ensure the effective protection of the EU’s external borders, the fair distribution of people with the right to stay and the rapid deportation of those without.”
If Merkel fails to find a solution by the end of the month, her leadership may be called into question and may be forced to step down altogether, creating a major political crisis in the EU’s most powerful economy.