Germany: Calls for Christian and Muslim refugees to be housed separately

“In the party and among the rank-and-file, the euphoria is nowhere near as large as in the party leadership and the chancellery”, said lawmaker Klaus-Peter Willsch of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Anyone who thinks the situation in Europe isn’t dire should reflect on this.

With the focus on those fleeing conflict, it has backed a tightening of rules for asylum seekers from the Balkans that would make it easier to deport applicants from countries like Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro, which the government has now declared ‘safe ‘.

A growing number of political – and public – voices are starting to question both her motives for such a stance and her ability to control the consequences.

Commentators and enthusiasts across Europe should remember that Ms. Merkel and Mr. Schäuble, among others, were the architects of the systematic criminalization of migration over the past two decades that made it almost impossible for refugees to legally file their request for refuge or asylum.

Merkel’s approval rating declined to 63 percent from 68 percent in June, according to a TNS poll for Der Spiegel published Saturday that ranked her behind Schaeuble and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

His CSU colleague Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, said up to 280,000 may have entered German territory last month.

Over the weekend, Germany’s domestic spy chief, Hans-Georg Maassen warned that Germany is seeing greater radicalisation of right-wing groups in the country, linked to Germany’s decision to accept record numbers of refugees.

“Whether it will be sufficient, we’ll see”, he said.

“Our hearts are wide open”, he said, “but our capabilities are finite”.

Nevertheless, plenty of other MPs support the chancellor and she remains defiant.

At the dinner table at home in Germany, we often discuss the plight my cousin in Syria faces.

Germans long knew their chancellor as a rational, deliberate, decision-maker, the accompanying article read, but in the refugee crisis a new Merkel had emerged “driven by empathy”. Taking such a step would mean “the end of the EU”, he said.

Germany’s population is ageing fast and the government’s hope is that the new arrivals can fill a desperate skills gap.

The bill pledges “additional” funding for local bodies hosting refugees and German language and induction courses for applicants with “good” prospects of being granted asylum so that they can be integrated as “rapidly as possible” into German society and its workforce.

Angela Merkel promises Germans that “we will manage” (“wir schaffen es”). They also agreed on speedy deportation of those whose application for refugee status is rejected and the replacement of “pocket money” given to asylum seekers with “benefits in kind”. If it is passed by parliament, cash handouts for asylum seekers will be scrapped.