ANGELA Merkel’s today completed an astonishing U-turn as she formally endorsed a full burka ban following a backlash over her open-door migration policies.
The German chancellor made the comments at a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) conference having recently declared she will seek re-election.
She told the annual congress that it was legitimate to expect integration from newcomers, underlining her party’s bid to ban the full face veil.
“The full veil must be banned wherever it is legally possible,” she said to a large round of applause.
Merkel also stressed her determination to ensure that there’s no repeat of last year’s huge migrant influx as she seeks a new two-year term in charge of her conservative party.
It marks a U-turn for CDU party leaders, who have previously expressed scepticism of a full ban despite growing calls for it among rank and file members.
Merkel has also stopped short of calling for a ban, saying only that she must find the right legal and political balance.
Party members have recently expressed hope it would encompass both the burka and the niqab, which shows slightly more of a woman’s face.
Germany saw about 890,000 asylum-seekers arrive last year, many after Merkel decided in September 2015 to let in migrants who were stuck in Hungary.
Numbers have since declined sharply, but Merkel’s approach to the migrant crisis has provoked discord within her Christian Democratic Union, which has seen a string of poor state election results this year.
“A situation like the one in the late summer of 2015 cannot, should not and must not be repeated,” Merkel told party delegates. “That was and is our, and my, declared political aim,” she said.
While Merkel has continued to insist that Germany will take in people in genuine need of protection, her government has moved to toughen asylum rules and declare several countries “safe” meaning people from there can’t expect to get refuge in Germany.
Merkel was a driving force behind an agreement between the European Union and Turkey earlier this year to stem the flow of migrants.
It comes as the country reacts with horror at the murder of 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger – the daughter of a senior EU official.
An Afghan migrant has confessed to raping her and then drowning her in a river in the city of Freiburg, German police say.
The medical student was the daughter of Dr Clemens Ladenburger, a lawyer who assists the legal director of the European Commission.
Maria helped out at a refugee centre in her spare time but is unclear if she was known to her alleged murderer.
Rainer Wendt, the chairman of the German Police Workers Union (DPoIG), told Bild: “We wouldn’t have this victim, and so many others, if our country had been better prepared for the dangers that always go along with massive immigration.”
Source: The Sun
