Hollande urges Germany to do more in anti-IS fight

Refugees, once grateful for the very fact they had arrived in Germany, have recently become picky, wanting to choose where exactly in the country they’d like to live, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says. If we don’t do that, people will say: “‘Enough, Europe!'” he added, in comments confirmed by his entourage.

“People should remember that no refugee can enter our borders until they undergo the highest security checks of anyone traveling to the United States”, Obama said in his address.

In a nod to critics in her Conservative party, especially in Bavaria, where most of the migrants enter Germany, she said migrants who do not need protection must be sent home.

Normally seen as the sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), CSU leader and Bavarian State Premier Horst Seehofer was openly at odds with Merkel on the stage they shared at the conference, demanding an upper limit to the number of refugees Germany was willing to accept.

Merkel, who has stood by Germany’s refugee policy, has come under increasing criticism lately as the the flow of migrants into Europe continues to spawn political, economic, and humanitarian problems.

Merkel visited the square together with French President Francois Hollande and Paris city mayor Anne Hidalgo and laid a single white rose at the foot of the column standing in the center of the square. “Nevertheless, terrorism must be fought with all possible force”, said Mrs Merkel. “When additional engagements are needed, we are not going to exclude that possibility from the outset”.

Merkel called the meeting in Berlin – which also included Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen – to consider Germany’s military role in the planned anti-Islamic State coalition being forged by Hollande.

Europe is grappling with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two. The vote came as Hollande and German Chanellor Angela Merkel discussed how to combat the group that has spread its violence beyond Syria to Europe and North Africa. The statistics also point that more than 1 million migrants might reach Germany by the end of the year.

Newly released border police figures show that a record 192,827 asylum seekers have entered Germany so far this month alone. The rich northern-European country, which unlike some other EU members chose to publicly welcome the refugees, is one of the most-popular destinations.

And in response to Germany’s European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, who warned that too-generous policies were attracting large numbers of people, the Chancellor said she was reducing so-called “pull factors”, including cash handouts to asylum seekers.