Angela Merkel on refugee crisis: Solution at EU’s exterior borders

“One must control…but closing borders would mean the end of Schengen and the European idea”, Faymann told German public television ARD on Thursday, ahead of talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The passport, found next to the corpse of an attacker, was recorded October 3 by Greek officials on the island of Leros, Deputy Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Toskas said in a statement.

Merkel also expressed solidarity with France following the attacks in Paris on Friday.

“There is no simple solution that is sustainable and honest”, he said.

Her oratory is often monotonous and she is awkward in front of the cameras – not knowing what to do with her hands, she took to making a diamond shape with her thumbs and index fingers, which her party turned into her campaign trademark. In the event of a United Nations resolution, “Germany will do its duty”, von der Leyen said.

Holger Muench, president of the BKA federal police, told the daily Die Welt he could not discount the threat of militant attacks in Germany as radical Islamists had Western targets in focus, but played down any signs of an imminent attack. And while Merkel’s approval ratings have taken a hit with the refugee crisis, 60 percent said they didn’t think another politician would do a better job.

Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder had cranked up strain on Merkel to reverse her “open-door” refugee policy, saying the assaults in Paris underlined the necessity for harder measures to regulate the inflow of migrants.

At one point in recent weeks about 10,000 asylum seekers were flooding across the borders into Germany each day leading to chaotic scenes as refugees struggled to cross the frontiers into Europe’s biggest economy.

Speaking at a conference earlier in the day, Merkel ruled out any increase in taxes resulting from the additional costs of Germany having to provide shelter for refugees, which the government expects to top 1 million this year.

Yet Merkel has doggedly refused to consider an upper limit to the number of refugees Germany is prepared to accept, and continues to insist: “Wir schaffen das” – “We can do it”.

“In light of the increased migration to Germany, we have to know who is driving through our country”, said Seehofer, who has repeatedly criticized Merkel for her open-door approach in the refugee crisis.

The European Union sees this plan as helping to return those to their homelands who are not entitled to asylum in Europe.

It is when she has stepped out of this pattern and acted boldly – notably by deciding to scrap nuclear power after Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster and again in the ongoing refugee crisis – that she has invited most criticism and opened herself up to attack.