Is there no end to the damage this demented woman is prepared to do to Europe before the Germans finally come to their senses and bring down her government?
Under heavy pressure from Germany to get a grip on the migrant crisis in the Continent after months of dithering, the European Union agreed to a deal on Sunday with Turkey that aims to slow the chaotic flood of asylum seekers into the 28-nation bloc.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, speaking to reporters late Sunday, acknowledged that the agreement, under which Europe will provide 3 billion euros, about $3.2 billion, and other inducements in return for Turkish help on migrants, would not immediately halt the flow of asylum seekers from the Middle East and elsewhere. But Ms. Merkel said it would help “keep people in the region” and out of Europe.
The meeting, the seventh gathering of European leaders since the spring regarding the divisive question of migration, came days after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane and added a new element of uncertainty to a crisis that has overwhelmed Europe.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Ms. Merkel said that Europe had many reasons to work closely with Turkey but that the essential part of the negotiations was the need to “replace illegal migration with legal migration.” Her statement reflects a hope that the unruly flow of asylum seekers — a mix of refugees fleeing war and economic migrants seeking a better life — can be brought under control before the people reach Europe.
It was probably just a matter of time before recrudescent Islam realized the the European Union was the best thing that has happened to the Muslim world since Saladin. Disorganized and almost literally defenseless, the soft social democracies of western Europe simply cannot conceive of what is happening to them, and now hope to buy off the Turk. Even a casual reading of European history should tell them that’s a fool’s errand, but no:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch opponent of accepting refugees into the European Union, said Germany struck a “secret pact” with Turkey to take in as many as half a million people. The initiative, which wasn’t part of a weekend agreement between Turkey and the EU on curbing the flow of refugees, may be announced by Germany within days, Orban told a forum of ethnic Hungarian leaders in Budapest on Tuesday. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans on Wednesday dismissed reports of a covert deal as “nonsense.”
“Beyond what we agreed with Turkey in Brussels there’s something that doesn’t figure in the agreement,” Orban said. “We’ll wake up one day — and I think this will be announced in Berlin as soon as this week — that we have to take in 400,000 to 500,000 refugees directly from Turkey.”
The plan to take in refugees from Turkey directly was already raised at a summit of EU leaders in Malta last month and was shelved after it became clear that some countries including Hungary were prepared to use their veto power to block it, Orban said. Merkel said after the meeting in Brussels over the weekend she met with seven other EU leaders to discuss a plan to settle refugees from Turkey.
“There’ll be tremendous pressure on us” and on other central European countries “that if somebody already agreed to this — and to avoid causing a diplomatic tussle by naming the country I’m not going to say where Berlin is — that we shouldn’t just take them in but distribute them according to binding quotas,” Orban said. “This nasty surprise is still waiting for Europeans.”
And a very nasty surprise it’s going to turn out to be, too. The childless Merkel’s “humanitarianism” may well turn out to be not only the death of her own country, but of Europe as well.
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