Germany's vice chancellor says Merkel underestimated migrant challenge

[GennGreymane]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eur...-idUKKCN1120RP

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said in an interview on Saturday that Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives had "underestimated" the challenge of integrating record numbers of migrants.

Gabriel leads the Social Democrats (SPD) -- the junior coalition partner in Merkel's government -- and his comments come as campaigning kicks off for a federal election next year and regional elections in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in Germany from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere last year. There is widespread concern about how to integrate them into German society and the labor market, and support for the anti-immigrant party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has grown.

"I, we always said that it's inconceivable for Germany to take in a million people every year," Gabriel said in an interview with broadcaster ZDF.

"There is an upper limit to a country's integration ability," he added at a news conference on Sunday.

He said Germany had 300,000 new school children due to the migrant influx and added that the country could not manage to integrate so many into the school system every year because there would not be enough teachers.

Gabriel also criticized Merkel's catchphrase "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do this"), which she adopted during last year's migrant crisis.

The chancellor used the phrase at a news conference in late July after a spate of attacks on civilians in Germany, including two claimed by Islamic State, that put her open-door migrant policy in the spotlight and dented her popularity.

Merkel rejected Gabriel's criticism in an interview with broadcaster ARD and said the federal government had worked hard with state and municipal authorities to solve problems, changed laws and provided funding.

She suggested she was open to changes in the EU's planned quota system, which aims to transfer of about 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other EU states, but said it was important to find a solution that shared responsibility.

It would not be acceptable, Merkel said, for governments to say: "We don't generally want to have Muslims in our country."

Instead of taking in refugees en masse, some eastern European countries want to provide other forms of help -- such as border guards for other EU countries -- and have suggested that the European Commission could offset those contributions against its proposed distribution quota.

[Saucexorzski]

I never understood the desire to help humans wrapped up in a fundamentalism that makes American southerners look tame.

[Tennis]

He doesn't know what he's talking about. There's a reason why Merkel is the boss and not him.

[Justpassing]

How dare she help (brown) people?!

[Stelio Kontos]

He doesn't know what he's talking about. There's a reason why Merkel is the boss and not him.

Be quiet, you'd have a right to talk if you country actually did half as much for this immigrant mess as European countries are.

[Tennis]

Be quiet, you'd have a right to talk if you country actually did half as much for this immigrant mess as European countries are.

Canada is a world leader in helping refugees. Your accusations are really offensive.

[Theodarzna]

How dare she help (brown) people?!

Is resettling millions of people all over the world into Germany really how one helps?

[Stelio Kontos]

Canada is a world leader in helping refugees. Your accusations are really offensive.

Canada is a leader in nothing, especially in the refugee crisis.

[Tennis]

Canada is a leader in nothing, especially in the refugee crisis.

How many other countries have flown in tens of thousands of refugees? Go ahead, I'll wait.

[Typhoria]

Canada is a leader in nothing, especially in the refugee crisis.

Canada is a leader in maple syrup exports. =)

[Forogil]

Underestimated the challenge? Considering that they haven't even processed the applications from last year, and have a backlog of 530k (20 times more than the recent Canadian resettlement of Syrian refugees) - http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/bu...1702.bild.html
And after processing the applications there is a lot more work - and they still seem unclear if they are going to integrate the accepted applications, or send them back after the syrian civil war.

Yes, underestimated seems like an accurate description.

[Deleted]

It would not be acceptable, Merkel said, for governments to say: "We don't generally want to have Muslims in our country."

Haha, man she's delusional as fuck.

[Stelio Kontos]

How many other countries have flown in tens of thousands of refugees? Go ahead, I'll wait.

Tens of thousands?

Cute. And they're cherry-picked too.

Meanwhile my country's become a giant open-air refugee camp for hundreds of thousands, and the rest of Europe has taken in more than Canada by an order of magnitude as well.

When Greece, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, etc all get their credit for doing far, FAR more than Canada then you can come in and shill for them.

[Saucexorzski]

Humanitarian and christian values are a bit stronger in the EU.

Lol Christian values, that's rich. Humanitarian wise...well enjoy the resutls.

[Azadina]

Canada is a world leader in helping refugees. Your accusations are really offensive.

*laughs* What a load of nonsense. Even small Finland has helped more than Canada.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Tenn appealing to authority. GG

[XDurionX]

Gabriel has lost his credibility years ago. Ha played a major role in ruining the SPD.

[Saucexorzski]

Fearmongering, hm?

Don't worry Europe is still as white, wealthy and peaceful as ever.

Oh you think I care about folks skin color and not thier actions. Please take your racism else where.

[Tennis]

*laughs* What a load of nonsense. Even small Finland has helped more than Canada.

Duh. Much easier to get to Finland. Common sense. Anyone following the situation would know this.