Opinion: Germany at Fault in Europe’s Tragic Refugee Crisis
By Darrell Delamaide
Sept 4, 2015 3:00 a.m. ET
Calling for unity on immigrants rings hollow after punishing Greece
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is belatedly taking a leadership role in pushing the European Union to solve its refugee crisis, but the EU’s difficulty in acting together is largely a result of policies championed by Germany.
It is Germany that has blocked every effort to name an EU leader of any stature to a top post for the union, because it prefers for national leaders to call the shots.
So Poland’s Donald Tusk, who has little international experience but was Merkel’s choice, is president of the European Council, while Jean-Claude Juncker from tiny Luxembourg, also Merkel’s choice, is the hapless president of the European Commission.
It is Germany, and Merkel specifically, that has systematically turned France into an unequal partner, paying French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande little heed except when they were needed as a fig leaf to make Merkel’s chosen policies more palatable.
And of course it was Germany that inflexibly led EU negotiators to impose a new load of unsustainable debt and more economic austerity on Greece in July’s bailout accord.
Father of Drowned Syrian Boy Describes His Sorrow
Germany is indeed opening its doors to a much larger share of the refugees from the Middle East and Africa than other EU countries and is offering more generous settlement conditions.
It is the only EU country that has provided financial aid to Greece to help it bear the brunt of the flow of refugees. There is no doubt that the vast majority of Germans are genuinely motivated by altruism to aid these displaced persons.
But German political leaders can hardly complain of the lack of solidarity and compassion in the EU after railroading through the exceedingly harsh treatment of Greece. They can scarcely make an appeal to EU humanitarian values after ruthlessly fomenting a humanitarian crisis in a member state.
While some commentators see the German response to the refugee crisis making up in part for its brutal treatment of Greece, it is rather the case that Berlin’s loss of moral authority from that crisis prevents it from forging any sort of unity on refugees.
And Europe, with its postwar history of stinginess and not-in-my-backyard myopia, would require strong moral leadership to come together on an issue like this.
After all, European leaders dithered and delayed in the 1990s in coping with the violence and genocide from the breakup of Yugoslavia on their doorstep, and it was only when the U.S. took a leadership role that the issues were resolved.
The U.S. has its own fierce immigration debate to contend with as a presidential election year approaches.
But, as Bernard-Henri Lévy noted this week, the European refugee crisis should not be lumped together and confused with immigration issues per se. The Syrians, Eritreans and most other refugees flooding into Europe are fleeing violence and political and religious persecution — not simply economic migrants seeking better opportunities.
It is not that the U.S. is without blame or has no role to play in the Mediterranean crisis, however.
The disastrous U.S. policies in Iraq and its failure of leadership in the Syrian crisis, aggravating domestic persecution in that country and paving the way for the rise of the Islamic State, have helped create Europe’s refugee crisis.
As much as President Barack Obama may want to take a victory lap over his apparent success in getting his nuclear treaty with Iran past Congress — even though a majority of lawmakers may oppose it — he can hardly just sit back and ignore the crisis in Syria and Iraq.
But the onus of the refugee crisis rests on Europe and leaders there are flailing badly.
Merkel herself, in her typical fashion, dawdled and procrastinated as the crisis grew dramatically worse, with appalling tales of drowning at sea and other deaths, culminating last week in the horrific discovery of 71 corpses abandoned in a locked truck in Austria.
Now, belatedly, Merkel has found her voice and warned, correctly, that the refugee crisis poses a greater danger for the EU even than the euro crisis.
There are numerous resources that can be mobilized, not only in Europe but in the U.N. and from the U.S. and other allies.
But it would take strong European leadership and the political resolve to overcome the nationalistic tendencies so close to the surface in Europe in order to deploy these resources.
If history is any guide, Merkel and the other European politicians will fall short, and Obama or his successor in the White House will have to bring the leadership to deal with this Mediterranean crisis.
Sept 4, 2015 3:00 a.m. ET
Calling for unity on immigrants rings hollow after punishing Greece
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is belatedly taking a leadership role in pushing the European Union to solve its refugee crisis, but the EU’s difficulty in acting together is largely a result of policies championed by Germany.
It is Germany that has blocked every effort to name an EU leader of any stature to a top post for the union, because it prefers for national leaders to call the shots.
So Poland’s Donald Tusk, who has little international experience but was Merkel’s choice, is president of the European Council, while Jean-Claude Juncker from tiny Luxembourg, also Merkel’s choice, is the hapless president of the European Commission.
It is Germany, and Merkel specifically, that has systematically turned France into an unequal partner, paying French Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande little heed except when they were needed as a fig leaf to make Merkel’s chosen policies more palatable.
And of course it was Germany that inflexibly led EU negotiators to impose a new load of unsustainable debt and more economic austerity on Greece in July’s bailout accord.
Father of Drowned Syrian Boy Describes His Sorrow
Germany is indeed opening its doors to a much larger share of the refugees from the Middle East and Africa than other EU countries and is offering more generous settlement conditions.
It is the only EU country that has provided financial aid to Greece to help it bear the brunt of the flow of refugees. There is no doubt that the vast majority of Germans are genuinely motivated by altruism to aid these displaced persons.
But German political leaders can hardly complain of the lack of solidarity and compassion in the EU after railroading through the exceedingly harsh treatment of Greece. They can scarcely make an appeal to EU humanitarian values after ruthlessly fomenting a humanitarian crisis in a member state.
While some commentators see the German response to the refugee crisis making up in part for its brutal treatment of Greece, it is rather the case that Berlin’s loss of moral authority from that crisis prevents it from forging any sort of unity on refugees.
And Europe, with its postwar history of stinginess and not-in-my-backyard myopia, would require strong moral leadership to come together on an issue like this.
After all, European leaders dithered and delayed in the 1990s in coping with the violence and genocide from the breakup of Yugoslavia on their doorstep, and it was only when the U.S. took a leadership role that the issues were resolved.
The U.S. has its own fierce immigration debate to contend with as a presidential election year approaches.
But, as Bernard-Henri Lévy noted this week, the European refugee crisis should not be lumped together and confused with immigration issues per se. The Syrians, Eritreans and most other refugees flooding into Europe are fleeing violence and political and religious persecution — not simply economic migrants seeking better opportunities.
It is not that the U.S. is without blame or has no role to play in the Mediterranean crisis, however.
The disastrous U.S. policies in Iraq and its failure of leadership in the Syrian crisis, aggravating domestic persecution in that country and paving the way for the rise of the Islamic State, have helped create Europe’s refugee crisis.
As much as President Barack Obama may want to take a victory lap over his apparent success in getting his nuclear treaty with Iran past Congress — even though a majority of lawmakers may oppose it — he can hardly just sit back and ignore the crisis in Syria and Iraq.
But the onus of the refugee crisis rests on Europe and leaders there are flailing badly.
Merkel herself, in her typical fashion, dawdled and procrastinated as the crisis grew dramatically worse, with appalling tales of drowning at sea and other deaths, culminating last week in the horrific discovery of 71 corpses abandoned in a locked truck in Austria.
Now, belatedly, Merkel has found her voice and warned, correctly, that the refugee crisis poses a greater danger for the EU even than the euro crisis.
There are numerous resources that can be mobilized, not only in Europe but in the U.N. and from the U.S. and other allies.
But it would take strong European leadership and the political resolve to overcome the nationalistic tendencies so close to the surface in Europe in order to deploy these resources.
If history is any guide, Merkel and the other European politicians will fall short, and Obama or his successor in the White House will have to bring the leadership to deal with this Mediterranean crisis.
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