THE COMING BACKLASH: Migrants Molested Women In Cologne On New Year’s Eve.

It’s worth taking a moment, in light of the luridness of these allegations, to note that Deutsche Welle is an impeccably mainstream source, the German state-owned international broadcaster—the equivalent of BBC World Service or VOA. DW has an explicit mission to portray Germany as a “liberal, democratic state based on the rule of law.” Meanwhile, Henriette Reker, the Mayor, is an independent supported by the Greens as well as the CDU, and she has previously been stabbed by an anti-immigration extremist. In other words, these serious allegations are not coming from far-Right sources, but from the center of the German establishment.

These kinds of stories could well change the face of refugee politics in Germany. Thus far, Angela Merkel has been successfully playing “good cop” to her partner Horst Seehofer’s “bad cop“—a dance meant to secure the sensible center from the rise of fringe actors in Germany’s politics. That little dance may not be sustainable in the face of these kinds of reports.

Reality eventually asserts itself, ideology notwithstanding.