Do us a favor. Stop telling the Germans what they should do. You have a president who is nothing but a belligerent fool. Start by writing an article about how he needs to go! Leave the Germans alone. Considering the amount of mess in the world, she's probably the least of your problems.
22
was a huge Angela Markel fan for her first 8 years (2 American terms), and like Bret, think she's stumbled very, VERY badly; but worry the Bavarians soon running Germany...PJS
2
I am an American who has lived most of the time in Germany for the last thirty years. Mr. Stephens is another columnist opining about Germany who has only an outsider's idea of what he's writing about, with no real understanding of German cultural dynamics. The majority of Germans support Markel, though they will typically have criticisms of the execution of her immigration policy. Her approval rating still hovers around 60%, a level of approval any U.S. leader would be thrilled with after having spent an equivalent time in the public eye (http://www.forschungsgruppe.de/Aktuelles/Politbarometer/).
42
In a previous article the author argued for unfettered immigration, sans criminals/terrorists, to the US. Why should it be less so in Germany? Not taking sides, just not clear on why the differences in the arguments for US vs. EU.
2
Mr. Stephens - I like your columns but it is extremely arrogant on your part to decide if she stays or goes - that is up to the German people. She is the most competent and compassionate leader in the Western World and a believe in justice and democratic values. Again if 13 years is too much that is up to Germans to decide not Americans.
10
Bret - for the most part, you make sense here. You cannot blame Merkel for all the problems. There is one area where she was short sighted, on immigration. With open arms, Merkel accepted refugees fleeing, especially from Syria. There was a human and moral approach there. However, it was too open, with no appropriate restrictions at the border. It is only now that Merkel has agreed to setting up camps at the border to house refugees. Extending solace to the refugees is a gamble and a challenge. Primarily, because, they all belong to different cultures and beliefs, and stubbornly refuse to integrate with the host country. They expect a replica of everything there was in their original home country.
We have not seen Merkel questioning Russia, who are wholly or partly to be blamed for all the carnage they have caused in Syria, leading to the refugee crisis.
At the same time, Merkel also deserves some credit, for her efforts to keep the EU intact. With the gradual rise in nationalist sentiment in various parts of Europe, the future of the EU is in question. If Merkel leaves Office, her successors, and the people in Europe should think and act wisely.
For now, it is better to have a Merkel, a known rather than an unknown.
4
"Primarily, because, they all belong to different cultures and beliefs, and stubbornly refuse to integrate with the host country. They expect a replica of everything there was in their original home country." Rather than treating them as a single monolithic bloc & perpetuating anti Muslim propaganda, maybe you should acknowledge that there plenty of good, honest people in these molds. That kind of language is dehumanizing & not true. They try to integrate, but they're under no obligation to completely shed their cultures to pander to your insecurities. Integration like Canada & the U.S encourage, no Soviet Union style assimilation where anyone who isn't part of the majority/ruling group to completely give up their culture & adopt the other culture.
2
I wish we had a Merkel while the Second World War was raging and Jews from Fascist Germany and lands it conquered were begging to be granted visas to the USA. Instead they mostly perished in death camps or killing fields while we had so much land and resources to spare that an additional 5 or 6 million souls would have not been a burden.
9
Irresponsible, appalling column. Merkel is doing her best to keep the hard right in check in Germany. Do you want to see the German hard right take power? Wow. The ignorance and naivete of this column is just breathtaking.
7
I agree. Stephens is being very naive & only seeks to validate the far right's views & agenda as legitimate discourse while it really isn't. The fact that some legitimate news outlets are trying to give their views a platform is just horrifying & shows that in some ways, they're too cowardly to stand up for human rights, liberal democratic principles, the rule of law & for ethnic, religious & racial minorities.
4
Stephens is totally wrong.Merkel is a bulwark against Nazi politics. He does not seem to understand the dangers of nationalism in the world. Probably he needs to spend time in studying the history of the rise of dictators.
He is an advocate for them. Like Ssntayana wrote. ‘He who forgets the past will relive it’. It is actually in German over the exit to Dachau.
9
Isn't it amazing that these same nationalists also cheer-lead for two autocratic, authoritarian regimes (Russia & China) & turn a blind eye to the Eurasian Economic Union's expansionist agenda simply because they're the antidote to the E.U which they absolutely despise? So long if it's the countries whose leaders they strongly back & love, they have zero qualms about giving up their sovereignty to two hostile foreign powers. They're huge hypocrites who don't seem to be struggling with cognitive dissonance & they should be really ashamed of themselves.
I have nothing to add or argue about when it comes to the article pointing out the arrogance of the EU Elite as I have been making this point for 15 years and am a Corybn supporter on political questions as no true democratic socialist can support an Elite burocratic undemocratic system but the main point of this article as far as it concerns the immigration question is pure rubbish and hard core reality denial.
The reason for the growth of the far right; see Neo Nazis growing in Sweden, the Nordic lands generally and Europe as a whole (France, Poland, Italy etc) as well as the UK's Brexit has NOTHING to do with Putin and EVERYTHING to do with the very 'activist' US foreign policy that has been pushed by war mongers on the Right (Cheney; GW, McCain) and the Left (SOS Hillary, Schumer, the DNC and the NYT) all of which are war crimes of 'regime change' (real one's not 'not proven' MSM accusations like the shameful absurd Skripnal accusations or 'Russian Collusion' rubbish).
It is Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq etc where the refugees pouring into Europe come from and as someone who argues against neo Nazis all the time the fact is the policies pushed by the DNC/NYT are the most helpful to real Nazis much more so than Trumps because it is the refugees coming to Europe from OUR wars of choice and nation destruction that have given them the wind under their wings.
Stop trying to hide the 500 lb gorilla of US led nation destruction. It won't work and it should not work!
4
I totally disagree. First find out where are people like Steve Bannon, Miller, right wing Brits, Hungarians, Russians, Italians..... probably busy in Germany spreading all kind of fake garbage......it’s the attempt to spread the “white wave”......... like America whole world will be divided. The most progressive country in the world ... the USA took the lead.
5
Much of Western Europe and Germany has been taken over by open-border lefties who will throw the local population under the bus for their virtue signaling in the never ending migrant chain. The USA should look carefully at what the "progressives" did to Europe. Merkel, the Greens the SPD and all the hard left NGOs which lobby for open-borders are destroying the post war order. What three generations have built under the US Army's umbrella is being squandered for academic Marxism dressed up as "human rights" and "diversity". This powerful leftist elite mainstreamed the new Muslim antisemitism, antiamericanism and much more fanciful stuff.
10
No, he's wrong. Western European leaders are not hardcore open border freaks. That's a massive straw man argument from the right. What western European leaders want is to secure the E.U's external borders within the confines of human rights legislation & without dehumanizing African, Middle Eastern & Muslim migrants as "Illegal aliens", "Barbarous hardes" or an "Invading army". What eastern European countries & their far right populist allies want is to treat brown, black & Muslim migrants as dangerous animals that need to be controlled, to make the west white, Christian, socially conservative, economically far left again & blame everyone else but themselves for their own shortcomings & problems.
3
Mr. Stephens, just because Merkel is savvy, smart, and a true leader who took positions without considering the direction of the wind or the latest polling you want her to leave now? Or maybe you are comparing her leadership with the reality TV star we have for a leader whose claim of fame is a deal maker. The deal maker who screwed up the oil business and is already costing us almost 25 cents more per gallon and headed up. His tweets are our national and foreign policies; screwed up all our alliances, called Canada a security risk.
Op-ed must not be voiced in a vacuum, think about it, who would you replace her with? May, Macron or some one else you may have in mind?
3
Mr Stevens is right: "Merk" has been in office 13 years, and that's enough. The way she finagles around to put together coalitions to govern shows she will do anything to stay Out.
As you say yourself, the immigration “problems” in both Europe and America are not actually real problems. The real problem is an ignorant populist response that leaps at symbols because it fears engagement with a scary world. Go ahead and close the borders. Build a wall. It will not satisfy them. Eventually, they will want Lebensraum and a world remade in their image where they feel comfortably on top. Yes, Mr. Stephens, the dark alternative is imminent and endemic, but it has little to do with immigration or Merkel. The globalizing imperatives of King Finance ensure that national differences must crumble and politicians caught in the middle, like the redoubtable Ms. Merkel, will be scapegoated and dispensed with because they were unable to hold back the forces of fear and greed single-handedly. “Save us from ourselves!”, we scream. “And if you don’t, we will condemn you as weak and go looking for another savior.”
5
This must be one of the most convoluted and illogical pieces I've ever read from the NYT. Nothing makes sense.
In Europe, a refugee has a right to have their asylum plea heard. This right cannot be "capped", so Mr. Stevens' indictment of Merkel is complete and utter nonsense. Yes, she failed to convince many other EU members to agree to take their share of refugees - mostly because they were more selfish and less interested in fulfilling their moral _and_ legal duties as signatories to the refugee convention - but at least she tried.
Mr. Stevens, let me be blunt: Europe does not need advice from people like you how to "save" itself. Instead, Europe rather needs less people like you, who are all too willing to sell out on their ethical principles to curry favor with populist movements. The EU has never been as popular with their citizens as nowadays, and the US under Trump has given us a critical reality check. The way I see it, you need saving much more urgently than us, and I'm glad to have someone like chancellor Merkel around.
11
Now that is rich. An American columnist telling another country that their leader must go?
4
Are you really bringing up dependence on Russian oil? Are you hoping that oils ends up in the US? Mistakes made yes, but sounds to me like you are going to too many MAGA rallies.
1
Replaced with a Trump? That's what will happen and make Angela look like an angel. Americans, and particularly conservatives never admit or even see consequences to their actions or thoughts. So she made a mistake on immigration because she has a heart. That's inimical to modern conservatism. Just look at the cruelty of your party Bret.
7
“Inter-war politics were dominated by the recurrent spectacle of democracies falling prey to dictatorship.” He continued: “It cannot be attributed to any simple cause, save the inability of Western Powers to defend the regimes which they had inspired. The dictators came in all shapes and sizes — communists, fascists, radicals and reactionaries, left-wing authoritarians (like Pilsudski), right-wing militarists (like Franco), monarchs, anti-monarchists, even a cleric like Father Tiso in Slovakia. The only thing they shared was the conviction that Western democracy was not for them.”
Sounds more like the U.S. (particularly tRump and the AMORAL GOP) than the European Union.
I think it is more likely the European Union will reshape itself and find a positive way forward, unlike the U.S. which I expect will take at least 20 years to re-turn to serving "We, the people" rather than the uber-rich.
1
I don't think Americans, especially American conservatives/Republicans, have much place criticizing Ms Merkel (or any European) considering the job they have done with the US.
5
Beneath the high-flown rhetoric the EU is basically a device for Germany to dominate Europe and run the show. That is why Britain is getting out and why Merkel will soon be ushered out the door.
3
Brett Stephens is pretty much spot on. Yet he, like everyone, overlooks one fundamental detail: the EU is merely a false flag for German hegemony. It is indeed an attempt at the Fourth Reich; at is most benign a huge dog expecting to wag a compliant tail comprised of all the other member states.
The world has been down this road twice in the past hundred years. First there was World War 1, and the United States had to come in and pick up the pieces. Then there was World War2 and dejavu. And now deja vu all over again as German arrogance has reared its ugly, self important, arrogant once more via the EU and is taking Europe down. Only this time the Continent will not be able to count on the US because its enemy has been willfully imported and is metastasising by the nanosecond.
Donald Trump, with al his faults, seems to understand that it is no longer America's job to protect Europe -- from itself, which means from Germany's arrogant domination.
Hopefully the populist uprising that is s weeping Europe will yet yet thwart Germany's ambitions and save Europe from utter destruction. But I would not bet my money on it. It's more likely too little and to late.
6
Dose Stephens suggest Merkel should be replaced by interior minister Sehoffer, also leader of Bavaria’s CSU That has recently imposed ALL public buildings to be adorned with a crucifix?
3
While I disagree with Merkel on some issues, we must be careful. There is already a Putin stooge in the White House and Putin would love to pick a successor for Europe, as well. She is the face of the western alliance. Another stooge in Germany and the West would be in deep trouble.
5
Merkel is too generous and misguided in her immigration policy? Mr. Stevens, someone using your name wrote in this space two days ago that the U.S. must be more generous in its immigration policy. If Merkel goes, it will be one more domino in the world's descent into fascism__including the U.S.
www.newyorkgritty.net
3
There is one plain truth in this otherwise misleading piece:
“She refused to cap the number of asylum seekers Germany would take and then pleaded with other European countries to take them. That almost certainly gave Brexiteers the political imagery they needed to carry the vote a year later.”
This constant torrent of imagery stoked hysteria and provided hate fodder for not just the UK Brexit crowd, but several other right wing tyrants, including the current White House occupant.
5
Ridiculous. If "generosity is a fast route to bankruptcy," John Wilkes Booth was the silk purse to Grant's compassionate surrender terms issued to Lee at Appomattox; at least confirming the Duke of Wellington's adage that "next to battle lost, there is no spectacle more melancholy than a battle won."
Born to be brothers, if vanity's to be spared from those we kill, of course we'll prefer -- as Lee had -- to "die a thousand deaths" than meet the mores never expected.
1
You aren’t allowed to impose peace and democracy by force. Now you also aren’t allowed to take in any immigrants, even when they are desperate refugees. What moral alternative remains for western democracies to pursue? Do we now all allow untold millions to simply succumb to genocide? Gee wiz, all those gassed and bombed out children are just tough? We used to believe in doing everything possible to spare as many as possible. The promotion, preservation and expansion of human freedom at all cost was our universal mantra. This was the primary moral imperative of all civilized nations. Is the new national purpose of western democracies just to enable us all to upgrade our fifty inch Japanese TVs to eighty inch Korean ones? Are our internal problems really so overwhelming that we are morally justified in curling up into a ball and covering our eyes? It is far more likely that most of us have simply become incredibly self-absorbed, more than a little paranoid and out-right lazy.
4
"Merkel agreed to establish “transit centers” along Germany’s borders"
This is factually wrong. Check your sources.
http://www.faz.net/agenturmeldungen/dpa/asyl-einigung-keine-transitzentr...
4
Nothing like having an American nationalist apologist explaining what's wrong with another country. If the author has any decency he would be spend more time railing against our anti-Democratic, president and wannabe dictator.
5
I have made many of these points in the same or similar form since Fukujima, the first major bad decision where Merkel made a pact with the devil to remain in power. And since she started that, there was no return anymore for her. Once you throw logic and common sense overboard for political opportunism, you're done for.
The refugee crisis then had exactly the effect you are laying out here.
Tellingly, some German column guest writers no longer admit a comments section here in the NYT, most likely because the comments left even by liberal NYT readers would shred their far-left propaganda. That means suppressing valid dissenting view points, precisely like those made here by Bret Stephens.
That says a lot.
Merkel is on the retreat and what is holding her in power is censorship. Facebook knows all about it. They now have an office in Berlin where scores of employees filter FB posts to eliminate those Merkel doesn't like. (Note: I am NOT on FB, but if there is an open forum, it must treat everyone equally)
There is no First Amendment in Germany. But I never thought that I would see censorship to the extent Merkel is practicing now. Unilateral suppression of opinions is anathema to democracy and freedom.
And that journalists would go along with it. Reminds me of the days prior to the Iraq invasion when everyone who could see right through the folly that was unfolding was labelled unpatriotic.
Me included.
4
The only thing good about the EU are the open borders it brought with its establishment. Apart from that, the EU has allowed Merkel to act like a queen, dictating to other countries that hers is the only acceptable vision. In this manner she is living proof of the EU's decadence and snobbery....Not to mention the 100's of millions in Euros wasted each year by the bloated and corrupt administrative empire it represents. Shame on Merkel and the dense Germans who are too slow to see what is hapenning around them.
2
I don't find the analysis of Mr Stephens and the conclusion he draws to fit very well: How would Merkel resigning actually help with all the European wrongdoings he lists in the article?
Nor do I find blaming Merkel for virtually everything convincing. True, the EU has at times failed it citizens by doing too much or too little. But how about balancing the trouble with all that has been gained? Further, blaming Merkel for the rise of the far right exonerates their leaders from the immorality of (some of) their positions and consequnces of their action: True, Merkel (and possibly a lot of other people too) have underestimated long-term consequences of opening Germany's door to migrants induced in Germans. But it was the far right's leaders, not Merkel nor what she did, that unduly stoked fears and then exploited it.
Mr Stephens - rightly - states that "Europe needs a real security policy ... needs to regulate migration strictly outside its borders ... needs robust economic growth and much lower rates of unemployment" - but how and why would Merkel resigning really help that agenda?
He states that "Merkel's failure is that she ceased to be conservative". I find that this assessment more than a precise analysis of the causes of and solutions to the EU's current troubles informs Mr. Stephen's conclusion that she must go.
4
"Conservatives" blew up the Middle East with the Iraq War and caused huge numbers of refugees, most of which have been taken in by EU countries. Merkel was not the problem, Bush/Cheney was. Under Bush, conservative deregulation led to the great recession, that affected not just our country, but other countries, including those in Europe. Obama's policies pulled us out of the recession, and then we got Trump. He has cut off all refugees and relies on Europe to take them in. Trump also cuddles up with Putin to attack the US and our Western allies, ans democracy itself. And Bret Stephens, the great "conservative", says Chancellor Merkel must go? Do Republican apologists really belief the nonsense they are peddling? Or are they just dishonest hacks?
11
Bret Stephens is right. Angela Merkel has been a disaster for Germany and for Europe. It will take decades to fix the damage she has caused. Like Michail Gorbachev in Russia she will be remembered as one of the worst leaders in the history of her country.
3
Merkel is an example of what happens when a leader hangs around too long. She should never have run for a another term - her hubris during the migrant crisis reflected a blind spot internally for her own people and externally for the end result in the rest of Europe.
2
Unfortunately, Mr. Stephens failed to mention an additional short sighted component of Ms. Merkel's decision to settle a million refugees in Germany. She enabled slave societies throughout the Gulf.
Refugees need a place to go, but Muslim Arabic speaking refugees from Syria would be better off in Muslim Arabic speaking countries in the Gulf which have labor shortages. Instead of insisting these countries take these refugees, she took them into non-Arabic speaking countries with very different value systems. They have not been, and may never assimilate.
In the meantime these Gulf countries import labor from India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The treatment of these laborers has been documented to be abhorrent. Their passports are taken, they must pay off their debts, their work is brutal in ungodly heat, they are frequently hurt or killed, and they get no benefits like workmen's compensation. Their corpses are just sent back to Nepal.
These Gulf States have engaged in multi-billion dollar propaganda sprees to portray themselves as liberal societies and are even hosting a World Cup. Their efforts should be rewarded by more pressure for resettlement of their own instead of indentured servants from elsewhere and demands for human rights for their citizens.
It's a puzzle why Merkel didn't insist on this. It's a shame for Germany.
The Germans learn lessons from history, unfortunately they learn the wrong lessons.
6
@ jkemp Do you know any Syrians, probably not since the US had only let in 12 as of 4/30. I know many here in Linköping SE and at least of those who come to the Red Cross many are well educated and are most welcome. Not so in my USA.
Only-NeverIn Sweden.Blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
3
I enjoyed this well written and incisive article. Mrs Merkel
does not have any children, does this matter? Everything matters, I have children and her policies upholstered by
German guilt, will foist assimilation problems not on my children but all our grandchildren. The German 'soul' is not cleansed
by flooding Germany with immigrants, to believe this demonstrates a quite astonishing naivety - her only excuse is that she is a 'politician'.
4
First Stephens tells us how well Germany is doing under Merkel, especially given circumstances for which she is not responsible, then tells us she has to go because (flurry of baloney and xenophobia). I smell a motive for this suggestion that isn't in the article.
5
Probably right, it is time for Merkel to go, but replaced by whom?
1
Until Stephens calls for the immediate resignation of Donald Trump he has no business telling another country what to do with its leaders.
Stephens needs to unequivocally, issue a no-holds barred, no crossed fingers behind the back, but a full-throated and frequent call for the greatest threat on the planet to resign, effective immediately.
Until and unless Stephens does this, he is part of the support team for the madness emanating from the White House.
Do it, Stephens - do it for your kids, your sanity, your intellectual integrity. But do it now.
7
But Bret, there is one monkey wrench in this whole argument. Trump will unite them once again, when he visits the NATO conference and then Putin next week. They will see clearly that Merkel is the antithesis of Trump.
2
@Heinz Bachmann:
You put you finger on the problem when you ask: Who is there to replace Merkel?
Exactly right!
That is a problem Merkel created herself, either deliberately or unconsciously, and with which she followed in the footsteps of her own mentor, Helmut Kohl, who secured his own power by never letting any strong contender come up under him. It was literally Kohl's old age and the intervening SPD/Green coalition government that allowed Merkel to grab the leadership. It is also the trademark of a failed, selfish "leader". Ironically, this is how the SPD argued also, whenever it was politically opportune for the socialists. Right now, it isn't, because they are in bed with Merkel and struggling to survive themselves.
You only need to look at the collection of Merkel favorites in her own party (only women, by the way, all in the name of PC, another tool she wields now to stay in power) to see that there is no qualified leader.
So what you are essentially advocating is to hold on to the straw (Merkel) while the ship (Germany, and by extension, Europe) sinks, because letting go of the straw and actually start swimming is too scary!
Sorry, I can't agree with you on that.
4
Angela Merkel shouldn´t have helped thousands of desperate refugees because bigots will be bigots. Eh, no. The process is and was far from perfect but she did the most humane thing by helped thousands in need. A compassionate woman should go but the bigots and those lacking humanity and choose to turn a blind eye shall remain? No, that is not the Europe I choose to live in. I was I work alongside these refugees every day - they are human beings who needed our help and the lives of thousands were saved thanks to her policies.
Vilifying her humanity says more about you than her.
10
“not paeans to the virtues of sustainability and work-life balance.”
Why not, Bret? Europeans should spend their money any way they want. While Americans rather shop till they drop, Europeans and others rather spend their money on their infrastructure, health care, education and the environment. Do you have a problem with that? Too bad, Bret, live with it.
8
What Europe needs is an infusion of low skilled, lowed paid workers. Europeans are the most highly educated people on this planet. The only way they can get low skilled, low wage workers is through immigration.
1
The other Bret Stephens is back.
Readers' Picks people have probably already said all that needs to be said, so I will comment on two subjects I know something about, asylum-seeker history in SE and sustainable development, in the Nordic countries.
18 years of experience at the Swedish Red Cross in, met 1000s of asylum seekers. SE and Germany have done what no other western country can match and made a new life possible for many. As for my USA, Bret, Jan-April 2018 Syrians 12, US population 320 m. SE, 842 Syrians, SE population 10 .
Bret, learn before you write.
As for sustainable development, you do not have a clue.
In SE and DL high technology solid-waste incineration to heat whole cities. A renewable energy technology.
Biogas production from food/human waste, forest residual products.
Large-scale use of heat-pump technology, too big a story to tell here.
Bret, I just had the unmentionable experience of riding a Greyhound Bus from Albany to Boston and got to see the American alternative as concerns sustainability. Sustain landfills like the monsters we passed at Springfield MA. I was reminded of the total ignorance of the Governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo who just turned down a proposed solid-waste use plant. (A caution: Since the plant was not designed by Babcock and Wilcox, DK, I cannot know if it was up to Nordic standards).
Bret, don’t write about what you do not know.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
9
Merkel has become a liability for Germany. scary thing is that she wants to stay. so she is clamming desperately into power. However, Germany needs a breath of fresh air and a lot of Germans have turned against her and are tired of her.
Whether right or wrong, Bret Stephens is always thought-provoking. I hadn't, until now, considered whether Merkel should go, but indeed, 13 years is probably time for any leader to leave stage.
7
The remedy may be worst than the current political disability ! Look at history.
1
Borders are intellectual constructs, and little more than that, throughout history. A country's "identity" is generally formed by violent invasion by outsiders, or not so violent invasion (ie, immigration), to survive. What about this process does Bret Setphens et al not comprehend?
7
Mr Stephens does not understand the European psyche because his views are too close to the selfish right a la USA politics of the Republican Party today. Europe will manage the current challenges with the good guidance of the true and only current world leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
24
Nobody is perfect, not even politicians. But clearly Merkel plays at least two leagues above the Trump.
I'm under the impression that the constant EU bashing by the US-rightwingers is caused by a dull feeling of lostness. All the old dreams of the superior nation burst like soap bubbles.
I feel encouraged by your commitment to the EU.
Hei Suomi
3
Stephens understands the European psyche better than you do in Finland. Let me assure you of that!
1
"(Europe) needs robust economic growth and much lower rates of unemployment, not paeans to the virtues of sustainability and work-life balance."
So generous of you to decide for hundreds of millions of people how they should live their lives.
I'll bet most Americans would jump at the chance to trade their situation for one that provides affordable health care & education, living wages, and four weeks vacation per year.
28
Hahaha I missed that line. Speaking as a transplant-Londoner, I know people all the way from university graduate level to senior executives who have not considered or actively turned down higher-paying jobs in the States because only getting two weeks of vacation just isn't worth the extra money. It tends to be five weeks, too, not four and France goes up to 10-13 weeks.
But hey, I'm happy to read Mr. Stephen's articles about the economic/productivity dangers of a good work-life balance from my beach chair in Malta.
16
Unemployment remains very high in many parts of Europe, and youth employment remains devastating, including in France, Italy and Greece. Young educated Italians are coming to the United States to work in restaurants in New York because there are no jobs for young people. Of course, I'd love to have a job in France with guaranteed employment, no layoffs, free health-care and five weeks vacation, but those jobs are impossible to find for most young people.
5
While I am not a big fan of Angela Merkel, she does have credibility. Who else with credibility are you going to get to replace her? Bismarck is unfortunately not available.
Unlike most European politicians, Mrs. Merkel at least made an honorable and sincere effort to mitigate a real humanitarian disaster. She was forced to partly reverse herself, but things would have been far worse had she not taken an unpopular stand and acted as she originally did.
And please stop bellyaching about European political union. Unfortunately, European monetary union is totally unworkable without at least some political union (c.f. Greece). The people rejected the European constitution and the Lisbon treaty. Fine. At least the people had their say.
Sometimes plodding is the least bad option.
23
Mr. Stephens wants Mrs. Merkel to accept responsibility for the millions of refugees fleeing into Europe. But are the European really to blame?
Notably absent from his analysis is an acknowledgement of the role of the United States in instigating the wars in Libya and Syria and other countries that the refugees are fleeing from.
It is American backed wars of aggression that are causing this global crisis.
47
Angela Merkel has been the leader of the free world for a decade. May she continue her successes and remedy her mistakes. To whom else shall we look for a role model in international politics?
41
Mr Stevens,
Ms Merkel and the other rightists you seem to decry are your tribe. Just because she is the only one with a conscience, is no reason to excoriate her. Indeed, as a member of the right, she has been a bulwark against the reincarnation of the dark streak in German history and in the rest of Europe.
The return of populist nationalism, along with Trump's trade wars, will soon tear down cooperative structures that have taken years to erect.
The very fact that a creature of the right, like Merkel ,could have become the model of Internationalism, should be reason enough to support her now.
48
One of your best columns was about the benefits of immigrants- low crimes, small and large businesses, priority on education.
Merkel is our strongest leader against dictators, but it is difficult to please most voters when economics is not the main issue.
It would be nice to find replacement moderate leaders to defend our democracies.
16
The sad role of austerity policies, insisted on by Merkel year after year in the face of 20% unemployment rates in southern Europe, also has played a role in the EU's demise.
21
Yes, true. But this was due to almost all of Germany, not just Merkel. And other wealthier nations in Europe, including the UK, Netherlands, etc.
12
Actually, it was due to the fact that Southern Europe and Northern Europe are two completely different cultures occupying a single land mass. Much like the American South and North. Hitched together by political expediency and high-flying rhetoric about “saving the Union” neither the US nor the EU is willing to face the fact that the South, as always, will dig in its heels to “defend our way of life” which is usually based in the corruption of local rentier elites. How can you blame Merkel for not solving a problem millennia in the making?
3
The Mediterranean fiscal irresponsibility has become too costly and so they had to be taught a lesson. Look at Northern European fiscal situation that is a model for the ROW.
6
This is coming from the same Stephens who stated so demonstrably on "Meet the Press" that his father was a "refugee" and he was the son of a "refugee" and Merkel embraces "refugees" like they are fellow citizens? Can't be true.
Perhaps, it's that the young Germans see her as the "open-borders" piñata of Europe, or perhaps, it's the many years of being behind the "Iron Curtain" that drives her to destroy the Germany that helped beat the USSR into dust.
Doesn't matter, she needs to stay and finish the job.
23
what a load! who do you think provides the core support for the new ringmaster? same ilk. you are right, though, to cite Davies -- we are now witnessing the rise of the oligarchs (aka strongmen) fueled by the volk and their nativist (aka racist) "sentiments." an insidious column in a world growing uglier by the minute.
21
I think that she neither must, nor should go. She has done, and is still doing, a good job of keeping on course The Fourth Federal Republican Reich in a country torn by the left and the newly emerging neo-fascist right.
25
Willy Brandt is dead.
Who else you got?
15
Bushwa, Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world.
31
The only reason Stephens wants her to go, despite all the words, is "she ceased to be a conservative". What more could be needed? Only so-called "conservatives" have legitimacy, and if they wobble the slightest bit left-ish, they are damned and deemed unpure.
Maybe Israel should annex Germany. Stephens might approve.
27
This article is poppy cock. Germany killed millions during WWII and Merkely is trying to redeem that horrible act. Give her a break.
51
More dollop than Dolly, I'd say,
Like ice cream on a hot walkway.
It is the Germans who have learned the lessons of WWII, make no mistake. Unlike Japan, the United States, Australia, France, and many more, Germany long ago accepted, and has acted on taking, full responsibility for its actions, without equivocation to the very head-of-state.
Strength lies not in "redeeming" but in accepting the truth and moving forward forever informed by what you have learned. Don't redeem, do good. "Let he who without sin," means: once a thief, always a thief; except, now, you are a thief who no longer steals; therefore, remembering that, when you are stolen from, remember yourself. What is "redeeming" but spreading mayonnaise on anger?
For starters, it's MERKEL. More importantly, Germany's horrific WWII crimes can not be a catch-all excuse for every stupid decision her politicians make today.
1
Sure. She is redeeming Germany by admitting refugees who will drive out the last Jews in Germany.
2
Is there any way to talk Bill Moyers out of retirement? God how I miss that man and his website with a crew of tough, smart, insightful writers who most of the time zeroed in on the real problem at hand: Trump and his moronic and crooked ways. And it was FREE!!! Merkel must stay. Lock up Trump NOW.
31
After trump. After.
5
Why don't you worry about your own country first? Trump is a cancer on our society and on our democracy. Let Germany deal with Merkel. You wouldn't want the German's trying to oust trump.
41
Ah!, but I would. I'd welcome anyone working to dislodge Trump!
2
Uhhhh, But you are talking about Trump -should you not stick to Mrekel then??? Face it - eyes are all on Trump and Merkel and they are the talk of the town... Merkel is turning to be a leftist failure while Trump is just one big flaw
Bravo
5
On July 5, 1938, the "Evian Conference" started. 32 nations decided about the fate of jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Only three countries were willing to accept refugees. The USA limited their number to 27.370 per year. Bret Stephen´s "Why Merkel must Go" , published on the 80th anniversary of this ill fated conference, is un insult to any humane feeling. In civilized democratic societies it is left to the voters ,to decide against politicians. I never expected the N.Y.T., my paper of all papers, to come up with such a mediocre headline
36
No Merkel fan here, but many Americans would accept an even swap – or possibly throw in a midfielder to be named later. At least Merkel recognizes the value of alliances and the growing threat from the Putin-Trump axis.
33
No good deed should go unpunished. That seems to be Stephens' "principal." Rather than putting the blame where it lies, with the racist, nativist, white-supremicists who are inciting this dark chapter of European inhumanity, he blames one of the few leaders in the world who is trying to be a humane and just voice. Just like blaming "liberals" for the rise of Trumpism in the US. Makes no sense.
34
Ever since Donald Trump was elected, the public perception of the United States with the exception of Israel, Russia & China has gone down & with good reason.
3
As a liberal I believe that compassion and fairness should drive policies that affect the well-being, safety and health of people trying to escape horrible living conditions. I also believe that the burden of immigration of displaced people should be shared. (I’m looking at you, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and head of the House of Saud.) But there is no practical justification for unlimited immigration. This is one of those thoughts that a liberal must not speak out loud. It’s all in for immigration, or you’re a raving bigot who stores babies in man-traps. That bipolar attitude has stifled reasoned debate on both sides of the Atlantic. You can rule out reasoned debate in America for the foreseeable future, but some kind of pragmatism could have rescued Europe from the ascendance of closet Nazis holed up in their caves waiting for such a day.
Whether Merkel stays depends on who replaces her. Henry Kissinger said he was all for “Europe” but in time of crisis, who does he call? Today that is Merkel. As for her replacement, the writer says what he doesn’t want. I’d like to see a list of likely chancellors who possess the leadership, pragmatism, and spine to say what needs to be said about immigration, but will involve the international community and make it work for Europe. With the continent under siege from inside and from its biggest so-called ally, we may have to just call Angela Merkel.
17
What the EU needs is to get rid of the bigoted anti-human elements ruining the Union and return to sanity. Merkel has made a laudable attempt. The unsolved problem was assimilation, a very expensive and complicated undertaking hard to bring off with a crowd of rock-throwing idiots pelting everything in sight.
13
Stiff regulations for migrants.
No regulations to be issued in Brussels.
If the donald read the NYT, Bret would be on his way to a job in the White House!
13
"It needs robust economic growth and much lower rates of unemployment, not paeans to the virtues of sustainability and work-life balance. And it needs institutions in Brussels that aren’t mere regulatory busybodies trying to punish member states for being economically competitive." In other words, you want to impose America's failed model of crony capitalism where a human being is reduced to a machine, on Europe. Why? Why can you not understand that America doesn't have to be grand daddy dictating other nations what is better for them?
24
This is another piece from NY Times in the vein of Ross Douthat's contention that Stephen Miller must be given a seat at the table when the discussion is about immigration.
We've just seen how that proposal worked out for the USA.
So Europe's next?
12
Utterly unable to defend his child abuse supporting gop administration and Congress, Stephens is taking the intellectually lazy route of criticizing respected foreign leaders in the guise of providing advice to citizens abroad. Last week it was warning Mexico against electing a new leader - how did that work out? - now it's the Germans. If only they cared to listen to any American right now!
20
We have an illegitimate president helped into office by the Russians he works for, yet Stephens is calling for Merkel to go?
22
Isn't that for the voters of Germany to decide, not a newspaper columnist from New York? This is exactly the type of American hubris that gave us Donald Trump and the Iraq War.
20
Trump has made sure that the U.S. takes virtually no refugees. Trump is trying to castrate NATO per Putin's desire. Trump welcomes white supremacists and NAZIs into his party. His Ambassador to Germany flacks for the far right in Germany. Trump resists sanctioning Russia's military and electoral attacks. Yet it's Merkel who needs to go?
Mr. Stephens barely covers up his own nativism and anti-immigrant proclivities. We have been abusing children and families, may of whom are also refugees, for months on our southern border. The darkness has already arrived; and it's right here in the White House, staring us in the face day after day.
17
Nothing new here. He obviously wrote this piece before the weekend compromise. In the latest poll Merkel remains far more popular than her government and the opposition. Seehofer is now one of the most unpopular political figures in the country. The authir's knowledge of Germany is minimal.
22
I didn't know that. But that's good news. Also, Merkel never wanted an open doors immigration policy to begin with. The only reason why she did it is because of the massive pressure of migrants & refugees traveling along the Balkan route. The E.U was ill prepared for this & this led to the mess that European countries are facing today, though not as bad as before. The major nations of the E.U want to slow the influx of migrants & refugees into Europe, but they want to do it within accordance of human rights legislation. What the Visegrad countries, Donald Trump, Italy, Russia & China want is to do it & to demonize brown & black people as well as trying to make Europe white again. That's what people are upset about & that's why they get called bigots.
1
"That almost certainly gave Brexiteers the political imagery they needed to carry the vote a year later."
===========================================
You mean the false imagery and the outrageous lies that scared people into voting for Brexit because they feared an imaginary avalanche of "others" into Britain.
Almost all polls indicated that given the truth and another chance to vote, Britons would have rejected Brexit.
25
Umm. Just who are you to tell another country who should not be leading them? You have a country of your own where you can exercise your judgment with much better purpose.
Unless you follow Putin's desires to see the EU crumble.
22
I find Mr. Stephen’s article offensive, as it provides cover for Trump’s ignominious behavior toward Angela Merkel in particular and the E.U. In general. Further, Merkel is a stellar example of a thoughtful, intelligent leader, as compared to our ignorant, mindless, spiteful, destructive White House occupant.
45
Plus, it plays into the anti Merkel circlejerk online, especially on the far right. Never mind that France & Germany have grown increasingly popular since Trump's election & in the case of France since Macron's election. The Franco-German alliance is one of the most popular regions in the world right now.
7
Those in power today grew up and lived the EU -- it was the utopian dream of the grandfathers of WWII. I witnessed this at LSE in the 80's .. to not believe was to be stupid and uneducated. But, I'm sitting next to you?
When I pointed out that Europe was lousy at assimilation -- this was dismissed. The countries in the EU wanted free movement -- for fellow europeans ... not Syrians or north africans.
They wanted to believe in something that was not true .. and Merkel grew up in the East .. she was removed form this.
Just wait .. it's all going to blow up. I'm in Germany about once a month -- its getting worse. There is no history of successful immigration on the level that has occurred in the past few years .. the Italians are never going to go along.
5
"There is still time for the E.U. to be saved. Europe needs a real security policy, backed by credible military power and less dependence on Russian energy. It needs to regulate migration strictly outside its borders so that it can remain open within them."
Bret, what ARE you talking about????
Can I have some of what you're smoking please???!!!!
5
I moved back to the US from Germany last fall, after 10 years there. The small town where I lived brought in and housed an enormous numbers of refugees.
There was no increase in crime. I heard no concerns from citizens about a culture clash. I met and shared meals with hundreds of immigrants, who were incredibly normal people, and who were learning German faster than I did.
However, we did have an increase in traveling far-right Neo-Nazi hate mongering parades. I wonder who paid for and promoted them?
The fact is, Germany has had a declining "native" population for a while now, and they need immigrants. This was a smart economic move, in addition to being a smart humanitarian move.
27
The article seems to be rambling with unconnected thoughts. Germany is now the only vestige of the free world and Merkel one of the tallest leaders and let me remind your columnist that US is directly responsible for the number of migrants that are flooding into Europe.
20
The UN reported that were 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons, and out of those 25.4 million refugees, and most of them were from Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Syria. All of that should and can be laid at the feet of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and the UN. None of them had had any affective polices, but have actually caused or contributed to all of these refugees. Merkel took in 1 million, and she is the only one that deserves to stand, much to the ignorance, and arrogance of your statement, Bret Stephens!
21
I am thoroughly mystified by this article. Unemployment is at a record low, growth is close to 2%/year since 2009, crime is down. And yet: Germany "needs robust economic growth and much lower rates of unemployment [???], not paeans to the virtues of sustainability and work-life balance." I just don't get it. Are sustainability and work life balance some how not good things?
Can't you at least give Merkel the credit for burning more coal as a result of her no-nukes policy? At least that should be praised by the Trump ideologists.
14
"There is much that is admirable about the chancellor, but as things now stand she is likelier to be remembered as the E.U.’s unwitting destroyer."
Surely you jest, Mr. Stephens. I believe our own President Trump has that "E.U.'s destroyer" job nailed down already.
I'll grant you one point though: Trump is most certainly unwitting, and the longer HE’s in office, the more the forces of reaction will gain strength.
13
That's what Germany really needs, advice from a country where Trump is president. Nein danke. Mr, Stephens, you think Merkel should resign, and then what, hand over the country to Horst Seehofer and the AFD? No. A wave of anti-democratic agitation is sweeping Europe. The remedy is not to surrender, but to stand firm, be calm, and move on. Don't be Chamberlain, be Churchill.
17
Churchill was a horrific racist, a lot worse than Trump or any of his secretaries. Read about his African campaign. He really did not consider Black people to be human.
"Now Europe’s crisis has finally reached Germany, even as the objective state of affairs remains remarkably placid. "Growth is sluggish, but unemployment is at a record low. Refugees are no longer arriving in droves, and the ones who are here are finding jobs. In May, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer — the same Seehofer who lately threatened to bring down the government — presented the latest crime statistics. Among the highlights: “Steepest decline in crime in 25 years”; “20 percent fewer burglaries in Germany”; “dramatic decrease in youth-related violence.” - Stephens
What exactly is your beef? I'd gladly take muddling on with Merkel here in the US over falling off the cliff with trump. Don't worry about the Germans and the EU Bret, concentrate on the mess we have in the WH courtesy of you Republicans.
21
Merkel's open-door policy, made outside the proper channels, was reckless, foolish, doomed to failure, and probably has fueled the fires of anti-immigrant sentiment a bit more, but Angela Merkel's open-door policy is t he only thing I have seen in a very long time that exhibits any kind of compassion or empathy toward her fellow human beings.
Was it a mistake? Probably. And God bless her for it. I will take a brave, caring, foolish woman over any of the alternatives now on offer.
11
And you've got the narrative wrong - you've swallowed the lies - German economy has never been strong; many refugees and immigrants are being drafted into the workforce and the education system; crime is at historic lows - so yes, thank Merkel, but don't swallow the nazi narrative...
Term limits act as an efficient solvent for "muddling"...!!!
1
A liberal immigration is what made America stand alone and proud in the world. Angela Merkel has tried to show it's better angels after the horrific remembrance of Nazism, and also the forethought of the potential of youth to revive an aging population. Bavaria ought to seek a stronger alliance with Merkel for the good of Germany...instead of allowing a dangerous and xenophobic AfD to grow and take over and destroy such a vibrant democracy, a vital nation for the survival of the European Union. Let's not play with fire. Besides, who could replace Angela right now, and do a better job?
9
When you do a column titled "Why Trump Must Go", I might read one again. To have read this one, was a complete waste of time. I would very happily trade trump for Merkel any day of the week, and Germany is lucky to have her.
18
Since 1870, Europe has suffered the disastrous efforts of German warfare.Millions of Europeans died as a result of this unending warfare. Europe suffered not only the loss of these dead, but the loss of their never born descendants - tens of millions over
the past five generations. These immigrants are simply filling an economic vacuum, which, having created this vacuum, Germany has not only an economic but a moral obligation to fill, And, given the warfare, bigotry, racism, anti- Semitism, of western civilization, what "hordes" are we really concerned about? But then, those of us who live in the US glass house are in no position to throw stones.
8
Ahh...the Never-Trump Conservative, a hybrid creature like the mythical griffin, and just as quixotic a creation. I appreciate the rejection of Trumpist bigotry, but the stubborn irrational streak remains, and makes for tiresome arguments. You assert that "objectively...[Germany] remains remarkably placid." Yet you insist that Merkel must go, that she is ruining all of Europe. You are refreshingly honest about the results of her acceptance of a massive influx of refugees-- unemployment is low, crime and violence in steep decline. So how do you derive from this the opinion that Merkel is a disaster for Germany and the EU?
I think I can answer my own question: you are urging us to ignore the objective facts, and bend to the will of far-right propaganda. You believe Merkel must go because the propagandists are saying she must. Merkel's mistake, you submit, is that by taking humanitarian action, she gave anti-human-rights advocates like Trump and Orban material for their next propaganda attack.
Do you not know your own party, Bret? The entire political strategy of the right wing is to reject the constraints of facts. Merkel could have let in just a single refugee orphan, and they would have photoshopped an "invasion" of Europe using stock photos of the New York Marathon with cut-and-pasted Berlin landmarks. Do not think that these forces can be appeased by anything short of a full rejection of universal human rights.
18
They'd rather allow the Russo-Sino alliance take over the world order rather than allow the European Union (A liberal democratic powerhouse) take over as the world's sole liberal democratic superpower. Isn't that sad?
“The only thing we have to fear is... fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” FDR (full quote).
As relevant today as it was then.
We need to call out the fear and lies being spread by the far right when it comes to immigration. They’ve used this as a cudgel to beat western democracies into retreat (sponsored by Russia, let’s not kid ourselves).
Crime in Germany is at an all-time low. As is unemployment. Economy is humming along.
Bret is advocating that Merkel go. Why?
When your thinking is aligned with that of Putin and Trump, and you consider yourself an intelligent person. Stop. Check yourself before you wreck yourself...
Why this uproar in Europe over Muslim cultural “invasion”?
I’ll give another stat: 400... yup, 400.
400 is the estimated number of Muslim women that wear a face mask in Netherlands. 400. They wouldn’t even fill a quarter of one stand in one football stadium... yet, judging by the reaction in Holland and the recently passed law, one would think that this was a crisis of immense proportions for the country...
Sense of Proportion. Context. Bigger picture.
Have we lost all sense of those?
Whose hands are we playing into by shrieking and running around like headless chickens...?
18
European countries are & always have been very assimilationist, unlike the U.S & Canada. I don't agree with the European approach in this instance.
"The stakes are too high for a muffer like Merkel to stick around? "
But if she sticks around -- despite so many short comings and nudges from the likes of today's unaccountable piqued Bret Stevens -- she 'll have famously reaffirmed her long acclaimed political/statesmanly mastery.
4
Mr. Stephens would have called for President Lincoln's resignation after South Carolina seceded. And Lincoln made more ugly and human missteps that Ms. Merkel. Stephens writes as if Merkel brought on the immigration and flight of asylum seekers. With columnists like Stephens democracy is in flight, for sure: vision narrowed to the cause he serves, not the facts or the spirit of the times.
7
Comparing Merkel to Lincoln is laughable!
Lincoln was prepared to go to war to ensure freedom from slavery. Merkel is laying down her non-existing arms to surrender the country she is supposed to protect! She is capitulating!
Just think through this: There are over a billion people living in Africa who can make the same claim those economic migrants, who happen to be the strongest of the bunch who can make it out of Africa can make. Those Europe (and Merkel) does not see or rather she cowardly closes her eyes to them. Yet, it is precisely those strong young men who are NECESSARY to rebuild their own countries and protect the women and children there. Yet, they run and those are the ones we are supposed to protect and have pity for?
You do not solve this migrant crisis by letting those in who are strong and selfish and letting those rot and die who actually need protection.
At the same time, Germany CANNOT support 1 billion people.
This is where Merkel's hypocrisy outs itself.
The problems need to be solved at their origin, but what does she do? Stick her head in the sand!
Decidedly NOT Lincolnesque!
Don't insult Lincoln.
1
More Trumpian bluster from Mr. Stephens, who simply wants another right wing ideologue to lead Germany so they can go along with Trump’s agenda. In lock step with the Emperor of Pugilence, Mr. Stephens reaches for any reason, factual or not, to denigrate anyone who’s ideas differ from the Republican’s agenda of isolationism, cruelty, and racism.
8
A typical conservative/Republican willing to point out problems but not actually offer solutions to the problems other than to stir up anxiety. All the while neglecting the fact American intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya is most likely the cause of the latest conflicts in Iraq and Syria which has caused the displacement of so many refugees. What Germany did under Merkel was a great humanitarian service that will pay dividends in the long run. What did the U.S. do for the refugees for which we have some not small responsibly.
Munich is the most affluent city in Germany because of its immigrant nature. Its population is >50% immigrant. I lived and worked there for 10 years also as an immigrant being American. I was there during the influx of refugees and was amazed by how it was handled.
The EU is not a perfect institution by any means but is by far preferable to the Europe which broke out in a new war about every thirty years including the last two World Wars. Better to keep working at the union than to let it break apart and go back to the quarreling and fighting between neighbors of the good old days. The U.S. had to endure a civil war in its relative youth.
10
If immigration and refugee issues are the central problem for Europe, as Mr. Stephens seems to imply, then he should have at least mentioned the destabilizing role of the US in the Middle East. The real cause of the problem.
15
Not to mention Russia/Soviet Union & China too. They also had & still have a major role to play in this.
The main thing I notice in the comments here is double standards.
Merkel is trying to be Germany's Chancellor for life. Putin who enjoys unrivaled public support from Russians is criticized for being a dictator because he has hung around for 18 years. Yet Merkel who is hanging on by the merest thread is a beacon of democracy. If she completes her current term (as she obviously intends to) Merkel would have been Chancellor for 16 years or so. I don't support Putin but let's apply the same standards to both.
Secondly Merkel is not an humanitarian angel. Her crushing of the nascent Greek government with the help of her Angriffshund (Wolfgang Schauble) is well known. That alone would have been enough to doom the Eurozone and the EU but Merkel decided to finish the job by her imposing her wrongheaded migrant policies upon every other EU member. These are purely image building exercises carried out at the expense of Greece, Spain and Italy which have long coastlines and numerous islands and ironically are also the worst victims of German austerity.
I put it to you that the blame for Brexit, for the rise of populists and right wingers in Austria, Italy, Hungary and Greece, and of course for the rise of our own dear leader can all be laid at Merkel's door. She is also the reason why immigrants in general can so readily be demonized.
I agree with Bret Stephens.
4
I agree. And she is also responsible for climate change, overpopulation, and lymes disease . Can you think of anything else?
2
Bexit was very avoidable - instead they pushed Cameron's nose in the mud, gave him nothing thinking the English will take it and ignored their silly referendum, just like they ignored the French, Dutch Irish referendums.
Now they lost their 3rd biggest economy, most capable military and financial hub.
Italy, the new 3rd biggest economy, is up next. Interesting to see how that is played.
4
Merkel is doing a better job managing Trump than our own congress.
9
Mr Stephens, kindly have a glance at your colleague Anna Sauerbrey's column, published at the same time as yours.
The refugee crisis is under control.
What is not under control is the desperation of the CSU, whose populism needs a bogeyman.
6
You know what bothers me most about these arguments I see repeated here? There is little mention of how this refugee crisis started. How did this refugee crisis begin? Oh yeah, they are fleeing violence and wars that were started by...us! By letting in all these asylum seekers, Merkel is trying to help fix a problem that WE caused. And the United States is providing her with very little help and a lot of criticism. There should be much more of the former and far less of the latter coming from our side of the Atlantic.
And as others mention, who follows Merkel? My dream leftist coalition isn't happening because of the chronic weakness of the SPD. What if a post Merkel CDU loses its Bavarian sister party and we see a coalition develop between the CSU and AfD? While CSU-AfD wouldn't be large enough to form a government, their size would make governing Germany even more difficult than it is now. Germany should stick with Merkel. Were she to fall from power, I think our country would really miss her.
12
Surprisingly negative view about a strong leader that has struggled to put the ideals of humanity first. So sorry caring for these refuge-dregs is so expensive! I hate it when the poor steal from the rich, it's not fair!
12
"Growth is sluggish, but unemployment is at a record low. Refugees are no longer arriving in droves, and the ones who are here are finding jobs. In May, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer — the same Seehofer who lately threatened to bring down the government — presented the latest crime statistics. Among the highlights: “Steepest decline in crime in 25 years”; “20 percent fewer burglaries in Germany”; “dramatic decrease in youth-related violence.”"
It seems Merkel must go not because of the reality of her policy but because of the fabricated stories of the far right parties. This is a sad commentary on the electorate. Merkel must go because she displayed humanity during a crisis. I think one can show humanity and still be conservative.
10
There's a lot good about Merkel.
Anyone who replaces her is likely to be not only worse, but bad.
And anyone Bret Stephens supports will be not only bad, but terrible.
11
There is and has been for oh about 25 years now a disconnect between the Brussels elite and the 'petit gens'. And there is a book: "Euro Tragedy -A Drama in Nine Acts" by Ashoka Mody
3
That's baloney. The EU started in 1993. So it's only 25 years old. This elites vs the ' people of modest means' is just another propaganda technique of the right.
1
You need a history lesson: The process commenced in 1951 with the Treaty of Paris establishing the ECSC signed by the 'original six' (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands), This was followed by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 establishing the EEC, the forerunner of the EU. The Maastricht Treaty merely changed the name of the EEC to the EU.
Bret focuses on the immigration problem that Merkel faced when Syrian migrants came streaming into Germany. It is true that it has caused some hard feelings among Germans - I was visiting my German inlaws in Cologne during the public attacks on New Year's Eve celebrations, and witnessed the change in mood that happened literally overnight with regard to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Merkel's initial response was unsatisfying to a lot of German people. "We'll manage" was the slogan. But in good conservative fashion, Merkel has adjusted her policies and tried to find sensible solutions. And, while the AfD has gained support, the overwhelming majority of Germans reject their message of intolerance. In this, Germany has proven itself the moral superior of the United States as it is under Trump.
But if Merkel can be faulted for anything, it is downplaying the legitimate needs of some EU states to have flexibility with regard to fiscal policy during times of economic crisis. Europeans as a whole are fine with combating climate change, fighting pollution, maintaining a sense of work-life balance, and the rest. Had European fiscal policies been more attuned to the needs of its constituent states during the economic crises of the past decade, attitudes towards the larger EU project - an incredible achievement when looked at over the post-war period - might be better.
3
Also, it's not like she wanted these migrants & refugees to come into Germany in the first place. The problem is due to lack of preparedness from the E.U due to focusing on the Ukraine & Greek financial crises with not having a proper external border & coast guard.
This is a bizarre point of view: that the most stalwart democratic leader in Europe should resign because she has, and is, leading from the center. "Muddling" her way to the pinnacle of well-being and unity that is Germany today. Germans of my advanced age, tell me that Germany has never had it so good. Not in their lifetime, and not in the times of Bismarck. Crime is down; incomes are up. Germany has regained a measure of its moral stature by taking in more than its share of refugees. Give us more muddling!
7
If low unemployment and high economic growth are the answer to xenophobia, what explains its rise here? Also, Merkel's desire for other countries to help with the influx of Syrian immigrants was more than reasonable, given Germany's efforts to stabilize the euro.
But more than anything else, I find it annoying how much conservatives love the word "leadership" and even "toughness", but seem to equate it with taking no risks at all, even for the sake of doing the right thing. One certainly could argue that Germany went too for in taking in a million immigrants. But our own acceptance of 10,000 was pathetic, not to mention the child abuse as deterrent at our southern border.
If somebody with Angela Merkel's courage, intelligence, and compassion "needs to go", someone else much closer to home does too.
8
Interestingly, many NYT readers are not supportive of unbridled immigration a la Merkel but when a conservative lays out a set of reasons why it's a bad idea, they seem compelled to stomp on him.
Most agree that Merkel's move was a colossal mistake. Only those peering at the rise of these "rightwing" parties from their perch on the left would find them all about the resurgence of some nefarious ideas and not simply a reaction to globalism's failure on immigration. People had to go somewhere to protest. Those parties were the only groups listening.
3
This article is so muddled and all over the place that it is hard to decide where to begin. How about with the last sentence? So Merkel is gone, now what? You really believe that getting rid of one of the last strong proponents of European unity will change anything for the better? Unfortunately we have seen that all western democracies are vulnerable to populist demagogues. Trump with MAGA, Brexit, Urban in Hungary, the AfD in Germany, or the Italians... all point to one thing: Fear of losing ones position. In the world, in society, in the workplace. Losing control. Populism hasn't been this bad and this strong since the '30s. And we know how that ended up. I think the way forward is not to throw out the old, but to fix it. Only populist politicians with dictatorial tendencies want to scrap everything and start over, on either side of the Atlantic.
5
What scares me is that Merkel has operated with a big tent, bringing into government people from differing parties and points of view, of course operating under her aegis.
If Merkel goes, who will take her place? In Germany, as in Austria, Hungary, Spain, more extreme parties are waiting in the wings, circling and biting at her heels, like jackals. Many of the stories are only half-true. I would reverse Bret's conclusion, the stakes are too high for Merkel to leave. She has been adaptable. She is smart and might maneuver out of this morass. The others will do as Trump is doing, create chaos.
4
In plain English..Europe, including Germany, has decided to have better control of it's borders. Just like Canada, Australia and now the United States.
It's time these immigrants or refugees put the same energy and effort into making their countries better. It is disgraceful that so many healthy able bodied adults aren't fighting on their home turf. If Patricia Okoumou can stage so many disruptive protests here then why didn't she do the same in her native Congo? People there could use her help fighting for a better life.
4
"The longer she’s in office, the more the forces of reaction will gain strength." But if she resigns, the nativists will be able to claim a scalp and will gain even more legitimacy, since her resignation will inevitably be seen as an admission that they are right and her policies are wrong. She has the right to ask: How much better could the integration of a massive number of refugees have gone? Her example is much better than that of Trump--a man who is afraid to take in even a relative handful of refugees, no matter how thoroughly vetted they are. Merkel's daring is better than Trump's cowardice. She knows something that Mr, Stephens does not.
4
The author of this article enjoys a reputation of being (politically) on the right of Trump. That explains everything. It's sad to see though that the NYT gives this rightwinger a platform to disseminate his uneducated opinions about the state of the EU or the German government. In reality no country in the the EU wants to leave, too significant are the benefits of a single currency and a single market for businesses and consumers alike. Brexit: nobody, except the Brits is going to shed a tear when they're gone. Always trying to pry a little bit more and commit to a little bit less. They're just not ready. Euro: Even under today's circumstances the Euro is stronger than ever. When it comes to the German economy even Warren Buffet remarked, that the German worker works only 35hrs/week, has 30 days paid vacation/year, enjoys health- and retirement benefits and is still way more productive than his US colleague. My recommendation to Stephens: get your own house in order. Take your glasses off which are stained by the ideology of "american exceptionalism". I bet you'll see the world in totally different light.
11
I am so utterly infuriated by articles like this.
This article, like so many others, does not take into account that sometimes there are no right answers. I truly believe that if Angela Merkel had allowed thousands of migrants to die and fall on the shoulders of less equipped nations, this journalist and this newspaper would have shamed her for her lack or humanity and lack of leadership in a truly horrendous crisis. These articles fail to face the reality that politicians are often facing situations where there are no right answers but rather a number of bad and worse options. This article suggests that there is a right answer if only politicians could see that. The world is a very messy place and decisions are never black and white.
Journalists should learn that the gift of hindsight is a privilege to those who are not in the unfortunate position of dealing with international crises.
Yes, perhaps it is time for Angela Merkel to go. But to suggest that she handled the migrant crisis incorrectly is to suggest there was a correct way to handle it.
Perhaps it shortened her political career. It might not make her a savvy politician but a human one. Which is more important in the long run?
2
Germany needs immigrants, and the U.S. needs the EU.
Germany's populations, is aging, Syrians are well trained/educated. History will show Angela Merkle to be right.
The U.s. always says it can no longer go it alone, the best alternative is a strong, pulled together EU.
Give me a better alternative. Please!
1
Come now, Mr.Stephens!
Do you not think that the United States of America is "on a bad path" ?
Even on a worse path ,since it is rapidly losing the world's respect because of its current (ahem) "leader"?
6
1) "Why Merkel must go": Bret, Angela is a leader democratically elected without help from Russia, Wikipedia, an electoral college system and a senate blocking the election of a Supreme Court judge. You may not like her, but I believe her going would certainly be worse and worrying than her doing her job and facing her responsibilities. Either you respect the German democratic system, and you propose solutions applicable within the system. Or you consider it should be blown up, but then replaced by what? Angela, courage, please stay.
2) "Then came ... the terrorist massacre at the Bataclan theater": what has this got to do with anything? You sound like Trump at the NRA thing in Dallas, playing with a strong image to impress people with emotions rather than rationale. There has been terrorist attacks everywhere in the world (maybe not North Korea), I remember a big one in New York during a republican presidency, and it has not been seen as the sign of a big internal crisis or the end of the world. One in Sarajevo (hardly a massacre) started a World War, but it is generally considered it was a pretext and the war would have started anyway.
Democracy defenders of all countries, unite!
7
Europe needs to fix its housing & integration problems. That's absolutely true. But, by scare mongering about Muslims & Africans & Middle easterners isn't going to help anything; they're pushing for an unrealistic & frankly unworkable idea of making Europe white again.
I wish pundits like Stephens would bother to learn some economics before prognosticating on other country's failures. He claims German growth is sluggish. What's the yardstick? The US? Would it surprise you to know that since the economic nadir in 2009 German GDP per capita has increased at an annualized rate of 1.9%, while in the US it has increased at a rate of 1.3%? Who's sluggish now? Economic growth is a function of working age population and productivity. The US population is growing and Germany's isn't. Why don't Japanese rise up in revolt against decades of apparently sluggish growth? Because their population is shrinking and, on a per capita basis, they're doing fine. You can argue the pros/cons of a growing population versus a shrinking one but let's be clear what we're talking about before casting aspersions on the choices other countries make. Otherwise, your prescriptions are like data - garbage in, garbage out.
11
Merkel's actions have earned her the unofficial title of leader of the free world, after the US, in the face of Trump, abdicated from the responsibility. It will be a great loss not only to the EU but to the world if she is forced out.
Her offer of safety and a new home to 1M refugees is worthy of a monument, and what she said about all the practical difficulties in accomodating that many new residents of Germany ("We will cope") is worthy of being a country's motto. She will be remembered by generations for being on the right side of history and humanism in difficult circumstances and not yielding to misguided, fear-mongering opposition. If only the US had such politicians.
8
This is an issue for the German people. No American should lecture other nations about how to choose their top official in this Trump presidency.
9
American pundits have been forecasting the failure of the European Union for fifty years. Just like the English once thought of the US, way back in its infancy. The stability of the European Union has kept that continent mostly free of war, save the breakup of Yugoslavia. For the sake of our own peace and stability, we should be encouraging Unionists like Merkel, not denigrating them.
11
This column drips with the seemingly inescapable condescension and hyperbole of American conservatism.
The good news in Germany on crime, immigration, unemployment, and integration of newcomers into a healthy economy is dismissively cast aside so Stephens can complain about "repackaging" structural agreements to make them ratifiable, as if trying again in the face of partial rejection is somehow a bad idea rather than a way to ultimately reach agreement.
And if redistributing migrants requires some kind of system to do so productively and fairly, that's the defeat of the EU's model of open internal borders, not a response to what may prove to be a short-term problem.
Most of all, Stephens hails from a conservative American party that is so skillful at making big decisions and projecting solid visions that it managed to inflict the despicable regime of Donald Trump's crime family on the world's most important nation, and upon a world that doesn't deserve such abuse.
American conservatives should look a lot closer to home and address the mess for which they are responsible before purporting to lecture other countries about good government.
11
It sickens me, when a supposed intellectual like Stephens calls for an exit of one of the last two leaders (the other is Macron) who may stand a chance to save EU. It almost looks like Stephens does not get the all-important significance of the Franco-German axis. He does not get that the nationalist-populist wave in Europe cannot be blamed on Merkels humanitarian gesture - just think of Hungary or Poland which have accepted no refugees. Stephens is good at cheap bashing, but has no constructive ideas or political solutions to offer. Merkel is a tenacious, smart, tireless and pragmatic centrist with a moral compass. She should be admired and wished well, all the while the American President and his likes want to destroy her.
14
This is why I am increasingly into learning French & German. The far right, far left, I.S.I.S, Russia & China are terrified of a Franco-German alliance coming to complete fruition.
Bret Stephens is one of those utopian supply-siders who argue against your guy by saying he's "just trying to do the most good for your cause."
4
"Objective state of affairs remains remarkably placid" indeed. Stephens could in some ways be describing the United States. Immigration into the United States barely registers on the radar of the vast majority of Americans until it's stoked into an issue by demagogues like Trump and news media looking to make a buck any way they can.
And I wish pseudo-historian pundits would stop referring to pre-WWII European democracy as if it were something that extended forever back into the mists of time. Weimar existed for about thirteen years. French democracy moved along in fits and starts beginning in the late 19th century. Those experiments were pretty fragile when fascism threatened them.
4
Trump supporters like Mr. Stephens want the EU to collapse. A dissolution would help both the Russian and US economies, as a fractured Europe flounders in chaos. It's a reverse Marshall Plan.
11
Mr. Stephens is not a Trump supporter.
He doesn't want the EU to collapse.
A dissolution would not help the US economy.
There's no such thing as a reverse Marshall Plan.
Other than that, spot on.
7
'The Devil you know is better than the one you don't."
Stephens seems to forget that all leaders are human and that all leaders therefore make mistakes. While Merkel may have made a mistake on immigration policy, where is the replacement waiting in the wings? So far, I've seen no evidence one exists who is a voice of moderation. That last thing Germany, in particular, or Europe more generally needs is fanatic at the helm of Europe's most populous country.
So, while declaring she must go may be easy, the more difficult task is identifying he or she who may take over. So far, Stephens has come up short on that task.
4
Germany has succeeded since World War II in good part because it has had outstanding leaders: Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl. and perhaps most competent of all, Angela Merkel. She has been a strong supporter of the European Union and the European Monetary Union. If these were to fail, it would be a blow against the integration of the world's economies. She has been a humanitarian leader, permitting refugees from the genocidal war in Syria to enter Germany. She has been a bulwark against authoritarian leaders, including Donald Trump, Victor Orban, and Vladimir Putin. She has also served as a mediator between the latter and the West. She is an indispensable person in a world that is hurtling towards disintegration and war.
16
The dilemma of the EU is the classic one of central governing authority versus the power of individual states. We have seen this in America and are still struggling with it even after our disastrous Civil War. I am not sure how things will turn out for the EU but whatever happens, there has to be a better way of governing it beyond the arrogant paper tigers in Brussels operating out of posh headquarters digs as they attempt to micromanage member states.
My goodness! Not one word about the efforts of President Trump to destroy the NATO alliance with a trade war and thinly veiled threats to leave with little warning? OK. For the sake of argument, let's say Chancellor Merkel has to go. Who will replace her and effectively deal with all the forces currently working to tear the EU apart? That's not a rhetorical question. Please tell me, who?
8
In all fairness I never was a fan of Merkel. When the press started calling her the new leader of the free world a year or so ago I knew then that label was way overdone and wouldn't last. She could barely pull together a coalition government. She has been aloft in her dealings with the US. She clearly has had no influence on the EU leadership. So Bret is on target saying it's time for her to leave and let's get a real leader in there.
In these days of "strong men" (Putin, Trump, Orban, etc) the world should value a "strong woman" - and a principled one at that.
Yes, she's been in power a long time; but, can one reasonably argue that the world is a better place as these "strong men" assume power [Macron excepted].
Merkel's "big sin" seems to have been her acceptance of non Germans as valuable future citizens. That gave the AfD an opening. The scary part to me, as someone who has visited Germany almost every year in the past decade, is the number of young men and women who were in the AfD demonstrations I witnessed. Their demonstration in favour of a "purer" Germany was an almost scary throwback to the 1930s in my eyes.
She may soon need to "pass on the torch"; but until someone is ready, it would be wrong for her just to move aside.
16
Angela Merkel is the only politician currently in power who is unflinchingly ethical and decent. If Mr. Stephens cannot recognize this, then he is as blindly oblivious to the tensions in Europe caused by the dreadful heads of state and their coterie of enablers in Poland, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom. Go and visit Germany, Mr. Stephens, and talk to people there and you will find great admiration for an adroit and deeply committed humanist.
50
At this moment, I would take the custodian working in your office over Trump as U.S. President.
Merkel would be an absolute dream come true for her honesty, integrity, commitment to the hard-fought principles behind the Transatlantic Alliance and her advocacy of liberal democracy.
32
My mother, a staunch German Hausfrau, would beg to differ.
As would her friends, who are all part of a neighborhood volunteer group who have „adopted“ Migrant families for over two decades now. They teach the kids German, drive the parents to their appointments, help them with jobs, find them apartments and generally boss them around and expect much of them, as if they were family. Which they are. We German kids got conscripted to help with homework, and learned gratitude and humility and much about other cultures, which hasn‘t hurt us one bit.
Many of Moms „kids“ have kids of their own. They are as much a part of the future as any of the children born and raised there. Without them, we‘d be a much poorer town, and a much poorer country.
51
What a wonderful comment Jessica, thank you!
I wish this were a NYT pick so more people would see it.
I've been involved in similar volunteer work in Sweden, and I share your sentiments.
That's why it's so upsetting, frustrating and painful to see the many derogatory comments in these NYT comment sections about refugees and migrants in Europe. Comments made by people who don't have the first-hand knowledge and experience that you and I do.
Thanks again - your comment was like a ray of light.
12
Mr Stephens attributes the rise of European nationalist parties (the "Nationalist International" as prof. Yanis Varoufakis has called them) to Chancellor Merkel.
My own attribution of causal responsibility for the rise of the Nationalists exculpates Chancellor Merkel and places blame on those thinkers/talking heads (activists, one could call them) who have been incessantly talking about the disease of the Arab mind and things like that, contributing thus to a wave of Islamophobia that gave the Nationalists the boogieman they so desperately needed so that they could cast themselves as protectors.
Mr Stephens also suggests solutions:
"Europe needs a real security policy.. ".
This seems to be a reference to counterterrorism policy, given that Mr Stephens in his article made a previous reference to a terrorist incident in Bataclan as one of the challenges that Europe failed to face adequately.
My own suggestion is that we should let the people of Europe be informed about the true causes of Islamist terrorism (by which i mean the policy-relevant causes of such terrorism, by which i mean the causes that are easily under our control). And these causes have nothing to do with the supposed disease of the Arab mind, but much to do with the transparency of the motivations of those who invoke the supposed disease.
People can tell when one is after them, even if they are incapable of articulating it coherently.
12
Bret, I think you have it exactly backwards. It is not Merkel who is endangering Europe but Hungary's Victor Orban, Poland's Mateusz Morawiecki, Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, and their ilk.
Read Norman Davies again. Today, "the inability of Western Powers to defend the regimes which they had inspired" can not be attributed to Angela Merkel who is at least--if imperfectly--trying to secure some sort of defensive perimeter for the values we used to share. Rather, I fear that the Bavarian C.S.U.'s apparent strategy of giving the enemies of the European ideal an inch and then some will only encourage them to take a mile, or the entire Autobahn. Such a strategy might have worked when there were occasional and isolated bouts of extremism but it is quixotic when we are confronted with an authoritarian surge across the board--and not least in the nation that once served as the guarantor of a democratic world order.
34
Macron & Trudeau are two other main world leaders defending liberal democracy. The thing is Macron & Merkel were & still are happy to work with them regarding immigration. They don't like the huge massive influx of migrants & refugees anymore than they do. They problem is that these governments' only solutions seem to be "Not in my backyard" & "Make our countries white, Christian, conservative & economically far left again!" while @ the same time hypocritically welcoming tens of thousands & Ukrainian refugees & migrants, even if according to their own logic, they could be F.S.B agents & ultra conservative white people from Russia. Oh wait, they love Russia & have welcomed Vladimir Putin's influence.
I believe Bret is suggesting that Europe invest significantly in infrastructure to put all the unemployed young people and wandering refugees to work building something with lasting value. A recipe I wish conservatives believed in for America as well.
13
That's a great idea. It would certainly give these people more opportunities, better housing & integration policies & everyone wins! They could even recruit people from lower income communities too.
Mr Stephens is right in his conclusion even if some of the individual points he asserts are worthy of a good, skeptical discussion.
Perhaps just as germane to Americans is the overall atmosphere of distrust among the German and broader European citizenry. It seems remarkably similar to what we wrestle with in this country.
Both there and here, we are experiencing a new phenomena in shaping, directing broader public opinion. Think of it as a sort of political crowdsourcing, akin to other forms of crowdsourcing, usually for fund raising.
The key point is that broad swaths of the electorate are not persuaded that their leaders have their nation's citizens as their first concern. They turn to each other. That percentage of the population has lost confidence in the truthfulness of their leaders and their media which in too many instances is akin to politically correct propaganda.
Ironically, given the current occupant of the White House, the Russian people were noted by everyone from John Le Carre to Ronald Reagan to Bill Clinton for their ability to "smell" the state's propaganda and decipher Orwellian "newspeak."
It seems that large segments of people who live in democratic nations are developing Russian - like sensitivities to "newspseak." The stunner to the politicians like Ms Merkel is that its their own people who are finding their leaders to acting increasingly Kruschev-like or Putin-like.
Different politics.
Different morals / ethics.
Similar hubris.
7
Ms. Merkel's policies have given hope to the Western world in a very dark time. It often seems as though she's the only person of quality in the news. And Mr. Stephens wants her to go?
58
This echos my thoughts: And replace her with whom?
4
Passion, democracy, liberalism = downfall of the west. Okay. Also would like to note that this piece is riddled with critiques of "low growth" and a criticism of the work life balance. You can disagree with European philosophy, but lets not pretend like this was brought upon by their thought. The wars that created this refugee crisis were architected by the very "conservatism" Mr. Stephens immaturely states as the only thing that could have stopped such integration.
Extremely refreshing to hear a conservative blame the world on liberalism even though reckless conservative policy has described western politics for two decades.
28
I would respectfully suggest that Germans have the right to determine their leaders without the approval of pundits in this journal, and Americans have the right to determine ours. Perhaps Mr. Stephens could spend some time listing all the reasons why our own country deserve a more honest, more patriotic, more respectful, more articulate, more intellectually curious, and well-read leader here in the United States.
54
Call me naive, but looking at the composition of most Western European teams at the World Cup, I am fairly optimistic about the prospects of successful integration.
24
Funny that you would say that!
The German team was unhinged because of UNSUCCESSFUL integration.
Even the CEO of the DFB said that.
http://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussball/dfb-manager-bierhoff-man-haette-ueb...
1
Anyone who has studied strength of materials knows that you can bend an object with a certain amount of force, and it will be undamaged. But push too hard, for too long, and it will either permanently bend, or snap and break.
Populations are the same way. You can only push them so far without a reaction. And it has nothing to do with "racism" against certain people If those countries that are the source of refugees were prosperous and at peace, and they were suddenly flooded with foreign peoples on an uncontrolled basis, their people's reaction would be no different. Change is only accepted if it is gradual and minimal. And, if it is subject to reasonable regulation.
22
RM - having spent much of my life in Sweden, I can assure you that, concerning the people who are "reacting" (which is far from all Swedes), it has everything to do with racism, ethnophobia -or whatever you choose to call it - against "certain people".
If Sweden were to receive large numbers of "white" refugees from England or Ireland for example. I can assure you that the reactions would be completely different.
21
In the United States in the 19th century, the established US population reacted negatively to the influx of white Germans and Irish. Those immigrants who had the least discrimination boarded trains and moved out to parts of the country that were largely underpopulated.
That was the US in the 19th century, a completely different situation from Sweden in the 21st century. "White" Northern Europeans identify with each other these days - they don't feel ethnically different from each other in any deeper sense, as they did back in the 19th century.
"The stakes are too high for a muddler like Merkel to stick around." Sounds like a Trump supporter especially requesting that work-life balance and sustainability make way for long toiling hours for the working class.The Chancellor is an incredibly smart woman, and will hold back those who wish to do less in the name of progress. If we, as a people forget the value of life, what type of life will our children have?It seems that this OP-Ed writer will have to find another topic to try to earn his overpaid income, and hopefully engage in some common sense humanity before he begins to type.
54
but again Stephens is another armchair analyst that presumes to know better than historians and specialists...but seriously it is only an op piece no one will remember it by tomorrow morning...NEXT!
1
Euro-bashing is the norm for an Op-Ed writer who consistently maintains the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia can do no wrong.
For those with longer, non-ideological views, the European 'experiment' , culminating in political union, is an absolute necessity to ensure Europe's survival and prosperity in the face of U.S. blackmail and growing Chinese economic power.
The E.U. is no more divided than the U.S.: The sole guarantor of U.S. strength is its fiat currency, without which it would be literally bankrupt and vulnerable to a full scale civil war. The U.S.'s advantage is that it has had 200 years to achieve some semblance of political unification (which seems to have regressed during the past 3 decades to judge by its increasing economic and ethnic divisions).
Seen in a historical context the E.U. is still in its formative stage, with the Euro introduced just two decades, and not two centuries, ago : Within two more decades it will be able to dictate commercial terms to the U.S. instead of stoically accepting petrodollar hegemony. The course of history favours 520 million highly educated Europeans over 320 poorly educated Americans. Time is not on America's side, and MAGA is a cheerleader's cry, not a practical solution to America's problems.
Focussing on the E.U.'s problems merely obfuscates the far larger U.S. problems ignored by the writer.
137
A really thoughtful, considered, well polished response from Tehran. Thank you!
1
Beyond Merkel’s moderation, which I see as visionary and not anywhere near as dark as Bret does, lies the fact that when you really get down to it there don’t seem to be a lot of European leaders who believe in Europe anymore, and among them Merkel IS the “last lion”. Without her advocacy at this critical historical stage, it’s a neat question whether there can BE a “European Community” lacking significant internal borders and employing among most members a single currency. Macron doesn’t have the belly to do this himself.
Her ONE center-right aberration was on migrants, and she’s perforce being pulled to the right a bit on a problem that is showing signs of abating as a major divisive force.
But the conditions that Bret sets up for the survival of Europe are not attainable in less than generational evolutions. When such is the case, one who merely “muddles through”, so long as she SUCCEEDS at muddling through, may be the only kind of leader who CAN be successful, if the definition of success is survival of a unified Europe.
Angela Merkel’s call to duty is MORE pressing today than it was ten years ago.
33
I disagree.
Merkel spent her capital when she started to make pacts with the devil, i.e. the left, against all common sense.
That's when she lost the other EU members.
She did have the authority to keep Europe together, but she squandered it.
Now, there is no more point for her to hang on. The longer she does, the more catastrophic the collapse will be.
I never thought I would say this, but for now, Macron is the last best hope for Europe.
Angela Merkel is merely in the way. She is merely compounding the damage.
3
Mr. Luettgen, I'm happy to say we finally agree on something.
2
I do not agree that Angela Merkel is to blame for the rise of the ultra nationalist surge in Europe. The Freedom Party of Austria was well and alive before the immigration crisis of 2015. And I do not think Merkel should resign at all: She has been a steady and wise leader of Europe in time of crises. However, Mr Seehovef certainly should as he no longer has the support of his party in Bavaria.
60
Bret Stephens column jarred my thinking on Chancellor Merkel. I've mostly been a fan. And these days tended to see her as indispensable. Lately I am worried Germany's abysmal military policy is giving Putin's asset, Donald Trump, a clever way to destroy NATO. And she is supporting continued dependence on Russian gas. If there is a better German leader who would address these and other existential problems for Germany and other European countries, I would support a change. I don't know if there is someone to fill the bill.
6
The EU is a failed test of the limits of governance by committee and extreme globalization. The conclusion is that a single currency, a single economy, and countries with open borders exceed the tolerance of their inhabitants. It is admirable what Europe has tried to achieve. It cannot work because unaccountable leaders, pooled economies, and immigrants rushing to First World opportunity have made it so. Now they know. Countries need borders, strong ethnic identity, elected leaders, and self-determinism. No one knows this better than the Germans.
24
Your conclusions do not follow from your premises. Merkel, for example, had nothing to do with Bataclan. Next you will be blaming her for American gun violence.
While Europe needs more Social Democrats, Merkel has been, and I hope will continue to be, a bastion of stability in Europe.
Her compassion seems to bother you, as do the lies about increased violence.
53
So unemployment in Germany is at a record low, the crime rate is at a 25-year low, yet Merkel must go? Have we now decided that substance doesn't matter anymore? I would suggest that the German people be careful what they wish for.
98
I even think that same report mentioned that terrorist attacks are down. Also, it did say that while anti-semitism was up, most of these anti-semitic incidents were committed by far right activists who happen to be white, not by Muslims. Also, isn't it amazing that eastern Europe has a larger chunk of their population that holds anti-semitic views than in western Europe despite having virtually no Muslims whatsoever?
Not so fast, Mr. Stephens, and while poking your finger in the European Union crisis that is taking place, you might be called a meddler in trying to set matters right. Now. You are entitled to an opinion and have a job, but your tone is a bit extremist.
A cat has the right to look at a chancellor, and the leader of Germany is not asking for bird feed crumbs. She is in need of some support in attempting to keep Europa Power in one bloc.
'Humanitarianism is commendable, but not when you’re demanding that others share the burdens and expense'? Here one might add that what makes us the highest species among animals is recognizing that we are better able to pull through this existence of ours by lending a helping hand.
Recently asking an African whether it was true that lionesses did most of the work in procuring food, while the male in his mane remained in the shade, and got first dibs on their long day's work, she thought this was quite natural.
Chancellor Merkel is not invincible. Politicians come and go. But of all European leaders, she appears to be holding strongest, with an outstanding presence, in search of viable solutions.
In France if retired, you are now going to find in this new regimen that your pension fund is diminished and the cost of living is rising. The same might be said of America. Fortunately, those who would get hurt have not caught on yet to this possibility.
'Unlimited Generosity'? On the part of The German Chancellor? Hum Bug.
13
Bret Stephens might have had the decency and honesty to admit that the refugee flow Europe, and in particular Angela Merkel, is trying to cope with, is a consequence of the Middle East avalanche started by George Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq, an invasion supported by Bret Stephens.
219
You can always recognize a conservative by the never changing two items in his arsenal: repulsive, dehumanizing opinions and a cup of sand to throw in your eyes so as to better distract you from the outrageousness he is trying to pass off as wisdom.
Democrats here should note that a country cannot have generous benefits such as retirement, healthcare and education, and open borders. These two policies are mutually exclusive. Most of us voters would rather have Social Security, Medicare, the ACA or single payer, and tuition aid than have open borders, poor vetting of refugees, and an impoverished illegal underclass of cheap nannies and construction workers.
19
We don't have generous retirement, healthcare and education. Haven't for a long time.
41
That is a trope that certain "conservatives" repeat, ad nauseum, without any evidence that people immigrate to the US to take advantage of our social safety net. First, there is no data to support the conclusion. Second, the data that do exist show that the overwhelming majority of people who come here, come to work hard and achieve a greater degree of economic success than they could at home and be free (mostly) of war and oppression.
3
Illegal immigration is one of the reasons why. Many labor and civil rights were won and illegal immigrants have been used to undermine that.
It's not a coincidence that Reagan busted unions and flooded the country with illegal immigrants at the same time.
1
Thank you for your refreshingly blunt and incisive analysis. Liberals love to leonize Merkel as the savior of Europe but, as you rightly point out, she has done far more harm to Europe than most. To the migration mess she helped to create with her irresponsible rhetoric and policies in the fall of 2015, we can also add the end of conscription in Germany and the unwise shutting down of all of Germany's nuclear plants before new sources of energy could become operational.
20
The Left does not lionize (not leonize") Merkel, who is a conservative.
We only favorably compare her country's more equitable internal economy to the out-of-control inequality in the United States.
4
Bret should spend more time detailing why this US administration should go and less time advocating against other countries leadership.
45
Disagree, Merkel always seems like the motherly adult in the room looking after her less responsible and capable male conterparts. She's often caring and steely if weary simultaneously.
The ongoing Middle Eastern wack-a-mole crises that beside Syria, Yemen and Libya etc. etc. ad nauseum and that at times also includes Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan aren't Germany's fault, and the European refugee crisis is not of her making.
Germany and other European countries are now victims of historical and present day failed policies regarding the larger Middle Eastern sphere taken by the larger West including the USA, UK and France and East mainly Russia and to much lesser extents the merchant countries India and China. When elephants fight, the grass suffers as the old African proverb advises.
56
Let's all agree on who MUST go: Trump. Angela Merkel is the leader of the free world. She MUST stay.
130
Speaking of muddlers, are you still a Republican, Brett?
Didn’t you proclaim till 2013 (at least) that the US had strong evidence for going to war on Iraq?
I don’t usually engage in ad hominem attacks, but there’s something profoundly wrong in believing that Merkel should go after the recent crime stats you quote that call out the lie being perpetrated by the far right on migration... (not to mention Germany being the last bulwark in the EU based on their economic strength).
Not that different from Trump, Brett..
138
" Merkel must go..."? Aren't we frightened enough ? Does Mr. Stephens want us to drop dead from fright. Ms . Merkel is one of the few SANE word leaders left standing.
77
Not to mention the way Merkel humiliated the Greeks and others with her senseless austerity policy -- this also gave rise to a right wing group. And a recommendation for less dependence on Russian energy? You can thank Merkel for that dependence -- another of her reckless edicts was to decommission nuclear power plants following the Fukushima disaster. Which means Germany is compelled to burn more coal (the pollution in German cities is bad), and buy more energy from the Russians (conveniently, the lobbyist for that energy is Merkel's predecessor, Schroeder). The woman must go.
8
> Mark G
"Merkel humiliated the Greeks with her senseless austerity policy."
For example, she complained that retired Greek civil servants were often the recipients of three pensions, funded by loans from Germany that the Greek government wanted to default on. Who does she think she is?
21
As a victim of German imposed austerity, the Greek economy has shrunk by 25 per cent, and over 500,000 Greeks have left the country (from a population of about 11 million). The emigres are largely young and well educated, and they have no prospects in Greece. We see significant numbers of them in the UK, and the anecdotal evidence suggests that they will not return to Greece. Frankly, this is both a tragedy and a scandal. Of course, Greece needed to reform its public sector, but the measures taken under German hegemony were unnecessary, ill conceived, wholly disproportionate, and strongly driven by the determination to bail out German and French banks who had greedily, but foolishly, made massive loans to the Greek public and private sectors. The morality tale spun by "Mutti" Merkel and others is a pathetic fig leaf that will be judged harshly by history.
2
Merkel has been slow to adapt to the reality that all Western countries including her own want the influx of poor immigrants cut sharply and will vote for anyone who promises it. However, your criticism of Germany’s economic policy is completely misplaced. It has a trade surplus with both China and the US, in part because high quality products face less competition on global markets from low wage countries than commodities. It shows that offering affordable quality education (trade schools, low tuition colleges, ...) and universal healthcare does not compromise economic performance. The US is the wayward brother of the West, certainly NOT Germany.
32
no tuition college
Europe is old culture with much more enlightened thoughts than us. Why is the author so much worried about Merkel? Best to concentrate on deep problems here at home.
EU and by extension Euro was always a neo-liberal project with Merkel steering it on behalf of big German and to some extend French banks.
In the end the project will fail (as neo-liberal economy will) and Europe will go back to how it operated and what it was.
12
Merkel is responsable for the current mess and future horrors on European soil. All the terrorists disguised as refugees who will kill, that's on her.
Don't tell me she was a great leader. She was an egotistical, even a disturbed individual. All those who think she welcome over a million of young men who are economic migrants for humanitarian purposes are just plain wrong. She did this, in part hoping to fill jobs, and that was a disaster as we know, and in part because she hates her fellow men. How else do you explain wanting to expose all German women to a culture that sees them as chattel. All the rapes, the murders are on her.
The worst thing about Bret Stephen's: His writing is almost persuasive. I'll commend him on his craft but otherwise I consider him an insidious columnist.
"Humanitarianism is commendable, but not when you’re demanding that others share the burdens and expense."
I'll remember that statement the next time US foreign aid to Israel comes up for budget review. By Stephens' own reasoning, I shouldn't pay a dime. For that matter, I'll have my countrymen lost to WWII back as well if you don't mind. As Stephens says: Why should we have to bare the burden and expense?
Even more offensive is how Stephens conflates the issues. As you might recall, Angela Merkel's immigration crisis resulted from German austerity enforced on Greece. Merkel would never have been faced with the decision if not for the ire and insolvency Grecian officials. There was a corridor to Germany with few or no records. I'd like to see you handle the situation.
An open Europe wouldn't be endangered if not for the actions of an uncharitable Bundestag. Merkel's failure was never being too liberal. She failed when she allowed Schaeuble to throw trans-European liberalism under the bus.
37
Consider this: The elections that put Mrs. Merkel in power took place almost two years after the pinnacle of the refugee crisis in 2015. Everyone who casted a vote did so in full knowledge of the extent and impact of the immense amount of people seeking asylum here. The far-right AfD might have come out to be the 'third strongest' political party - but at 12,6% the vast majority of 87,4% of the electorate voted for parties left from them. It is true that Merkel is a very left-leaning conservative, but by that, she sits very much in the center-of-mass of the german political spectrum: The parties that represent positions which would all be labeled 'liberal' in American politics (the far left "Linke", the center-left SPD, the green party and the FDP) amount to 49,3 % of the votes, while the center right CDU/CSU and far right AfD have 45,5% combined. Merkel's political positions are, by far and large, a very precise representation of the political will of the country as a whole. That is the reason for her high approval ratings throughout the political spectrum.
I think it is no coincidence at all that the european countries which are 'falling prey to dictatorship' nowadays, are the ones with the most deeply rooted religious traditionalism: Poland, Hungary, Italy, Austria are all deeply catholic countries. It is their irrational fear that splits the European Union, not Merkels handling of a humanitarian crises largely created by 'muddlers' ...elsewhere.
66
Sebastian, Interesting you point out that those trending to the Right are associated with strong religious tradition. Though Germany has become overwhelmingly secular, it remains to be seen if they are better off as a result. On this topic it is possible that Germans may eventually decide that they are not.
1
It is thru our mistakes that we learn not to repeat them . Angela Merkel should not go , she provided the steady and wise guiding hand for Germany and the EU . The biggest mistake she made was assuming the rest of the countries in the EU would willingly cooperate in accepting their share of migrants and how quickly it soured as they became overwhelmed by the human flood . Changes do need to be made , she needs to help to do so and assure that the autocratic tendencies are tamped down .
30
It would help if Bret Stephens studied up on migrations due to climate change, which are only just beginning. He needs to understand that the people who benefit from promoting ignorance about the seriousness of the problem are short-term profiteers, mostly those who are already wealthy and powerful.
The poor are always the first to suffer: famine, floods, disease, sea level rise, violence, desperation, the victims are always those who can't afford to move or live in a safe place.
His buddies in the luckwarmer camp are making a very good living telling people what they want to hear: let's all get rich and we can fix it later; some "genius" will provide a fix later. So dishonest. The problem is much bigger than that, and it's not temporary, it's only just begun.
There's plenty of proof that conflict in already inhospitable regions is exacerbated by climate change, which is making every kind of earthly inhospitality worse.
Here's a good recent article which talks about climate justice in powerful ways in four short videos:
"Miami Faces an Underwater Future" https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/miami-faces-an-underwater-future
39
The E.U is trying to be nuanced on this issue. They want to control the E.U's external borders, but remain generous & control the borders within accordance of human rights & E.U legislation. They want reception centres & better housing & integration policies. They want a system in which everybody wins!
1
In reply to Susan Anderson:
Your post makes a lot of sense to all those who read, who study, who watch informed TV shows and discussions.
Mass migration due to climate change will make fussing about German immigration and obsession with "murderers and rapists" at the US southern border look silly.
There will be refugees ,masses of refugees from drought, famine, flooding; this will cause upheaval and fighting.
As you say, this is just the beginning.
People should remember : Nature always bats last.
1
Be very careful for what you wish for, Mr. Stephens.
34
Brexit didn't pass because of migrants in Germany. It succeeded because Cambridge Analytica targeted voters whose tendencies were identifiably xenophobic. It succeeded because of voter apathy. It succeeded with help from the Russians. It succeeded, as did the election of Trump, for a whole host of reasons that are completely disassociated with old fashioned sociology. Merkel, to her credit, was all too aware of that setting up camps in Germany would remind the world of the 1930s and 1940s. You cannot impose limits on generosity. Without the option of endless generosity, there is no humanism.
111
There continue to be revelations of the ties of the Russian enterprise that helped throw the US election to Trump and manipulations across Europe that have put extremists and racists in power. The end goal is to weaken everyone else, which will - supposedly - make Russia more powerful. Not a nice thing.
Putin has survived for a long time: his first known coup being to help Yeltsin take over after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
Sad.
11
I'm British, I voted to remain in the EU and I would do again, if we get the chance to have another referendum. I was shocked by the result and by how out of touch I was.
I would like to tell you that you are wrong. I think that the turning point was when Merkel unilaterally welcomed migrants to Germany, and given freedom of movement that ment that they were effectively invited into the EU. There was a huge reaction against that in the UK, the arrogance of not consulting your partner countries before making such an invitation.
Cambridge analytica and the evil Russians hiding under the bed are red herrings. It may be true it may not be true, but in the scheme of things it is unlikely to have affected many people. There was little voter apathy, the turnout was 72% which is high for the UK.
I think that Anglea Merkle as an admirable and honourable woman who is doing the right thing for humanity as a whole. Unfortunately, the isn't in office to represent humanity as a whole. I think that her stance on immigration irreperably damaged the EU. Futhermore, I think the writer of this article hits the nail on the head about what is happening in Europe at the moment.
10
Wishful thinking. It would be much easier to blame a far-off country, rather than accept into our hearts ~50% of your own countryfolk for Brexit and Trump, respectively, fundamentally disagree with us. It makes taking the pill easier to swallow if we allow ourselves to believe "these people were tricked by the evil foreign power". I do not think that they were, not in large numbers anyway. But, hey, that is democracy.
I don't necessarily agree that Merkel should go; however, she made a real hash of things by allowing such a huge number of immigrants to enter Germany without a plan for how to manage the situation.
In expecting she could assign a certain number of migrants to go to each of the other European Union members, she assumed she knew what was best for everyone. It was a bit like playing poker with my money without asking me how I want to place my bets.
Her Interior Minister is just playing politics to protect his own political hide from losing more of his support to AfD.
It is true that the rate of immigration has slowed down dramatically, but there are still many problems in Europe with managing the immigrants who came in the last few years.
Still she has been a steady hand and if she can manage to fix what she has broken then fine.
20
I don't think it will be a good idea for her to go at this particular moment, at least not till Trump is out of office. If she goes it will leave an opening for extreme right to grab power, this will be bad for EU.
25
I'm German and not worried about "mandarins" in Brussels or Berlin, much more so about populists in my country, Hungary, Poland, Italy, UK or the US.
We need a European constitution, joint budget and foreign policy, open borders and a common currency. Angela Merkel is not muddling, rather one of the few remaining voices of reason and decency on the top political level in Europe and globally.
I have absolutely no idea, at all, 0, what we can possibly win, risking everything we achieved as a global community since WW2 for national and individual short term gains.
62
Macron's reformist agenda is even catching on in Europe. The A.L.D.E is gaining votes too. Securing the E.U's external borders is an absolute must, but the E.U should continue to remain generous, fix its housing & integration policies & make sure that they're all done within the confines of human rights legislation.
"It needs to regulate migration strictly outside its borders so that it can remain open within them."
This is a puzzler. How is the EU to regulate migration strictly outside its borders?
Mr. Stephens can only mean that the EU needs to regulate migration across its borders strictly, so that the labor market within its borders is not distorted by uncontrolled importation of workers.
This must also mean, surely, that the U.S. must regulate migration across its borders strictly, so that the labor market within its borders is not distorted by uncontrolled importation of workers.
The other possibility is that the illogic of the original sentence -- the EU controlling migration outside its borders, rather than across its borders -- reflects the illogic within the writer's mind.
13
Merkel has been in office a long time--13 years--but given the instability that Trump has injected into the western alliances in particular and the world in general, it seems a terrifically bad time for her to step aside. And who is going to step into her place? I don't really see anybody who can do that right now.
I'd like to see her cultivating the next generation of leadership in Germany--something I'd also like to see Pelosi and Schumer and the Democrats doing as well.
31
The responses from most readers is much more reasonable than the column written by Mr. Stephens.
17
What Stephens is saying that the EU has to act like a nation: have its own credible military; its own energy sources; it needs to police its own borders against illegal immigrants (the total population of the Middle East is over 350 million; if they can all enter the EU, that would engulf any administration); have its own means of controlling fiscal policy, etc. But the EU has never developed the democratic ideal in a way that was accepted by large numbers, or even sought real democratic participation; the people of Europe consider themselves Italian, French, German, Greek, Spanish, etc. , not EU-ers. Democracy isn't necessarily collapsing; bureaucracy is. There is no substitute for genuine democratic support, which means listening to people who have previously been vilified as "xenophobes." For some reason, the term "Western Democracy" is incompatible (in the minds of various people, including Bret Stephens) with the desires of the xenophobes (read "deplorables") to control immigration. The 'popular resentment' of which Stephens complains is democracy.
6
The people from the sexy, to-drool-for cultures such as Italy, Greece, France, etc., consider themselves Italian, Greek, French, etc. I have noticed that people from the little boring places like Finland and Belgium refer to themselves as "European" because that sounds sexier than Finn or Belgian.
1
You assert that "...the C.D.U. dragged its Bavarian sister too far to the left..." For at least some in C.S.U. leadership, this would mean anything more progressive than positions pre-dating Vatican II. A former colleague specializing in German studies (and a Benedictine monk) said that he was struck by the almost medieval character of many practices of the Bavarian Church, which influences the Party greatly. Another friend in a not-too-distant part of the country was a very conservative Catholic and an active C.D.U. local politician. Perhaps the problem is with the anachronistic C.S.U., and not with the 'mainstream' conservatives trying to deal with 21st-century problems and issues.
9
Germany is and always was a very powerful country.
The German people are a very proud group.
Merkel had her time, Time for Germany to become a powerhouse on the world stage .
1
Yeah, no. We can’t afford to replace the leader of the free world just yet.
50
Yeah may be it is time for Merkel to go. And the rationale will be as the article suggests - and surprisingly -incompetence.
I think Europe in order to be successful as a union needs to recognize that more than anything it is a “human” union and thus must agree on values first that its members are bought into. Whether the members - most of which have unusual levels of nationalism (contrast for example with an Oklahoma, or Tennessee) - can EVER agree to such a set of values remains to be seen.
You could also almost argue that to make the sell on human values - and the belief that the collective is indeed better for all individuals - requires a leader who can rally people around high value causes (Obama comes to mind). Such a personality Merkel clearly is not.
Her appetite to be the greater - by welcoming those in distress - may have been good, even though it remains to be seen if she was looking to blot over the holocaust past with such strokes, but she clearly lacked the chops to deliver on her noble goal.
Time for her to go. And let the music begin.
5
Merkel ruined Europe when she failed to take into account that Europe has a history of nationalistic far right tendencies when the populace feels displaced by cultural opposites that change the character of the towns & villages & public assistance funds must be shared with new arrivals—if she doesn't leave voluntarily the far right will rise in Germany & infect Belgium & France
13
It already has.
Are conservatives opposed to open diverse democracies? Trump's divisive and hateful rhetoric is rapidly spreading. The allegedly thoughtful principled conservatives profess alarm, yet they seek to undermine those who are trying to hold back the xenophobic tide. I fear that Merkel has already made one compromise too many. The "transit centers" (how is that different from concentration camps?) will result in closed borders, and the end of Unity in the European Union. God knows she tried, no thanks to her detractors. Trade wars, rising walls, quasi dictators, economic upheaval blamed on immigrants - must we relive the 1930s? Conservatives like Stephens should think twice before attacking the last democrat standing.
19
I am sorry, I have my own problems with "Inter-war politics were dominated by the recurrent spectacle of democracies falling prey to dictatorship" to care about another country.
6
'Muddler like Merkel'? She has made mistakes surely but she has been the wisest and most competent politician worldover for the last decade at least.
58
Bret Stephens must be smoking a hookah.
Merkel opened the door to refugees, which was the right thing to do. She speaks for the alliance, even as Trump threatens it. She has flaws to be sure, but these dwarf in comparison with the current occupant of the White House.
Rather than seek to destabilize Europe further, we should be fighting instead for liberal values, and against the "temper of the times".
38
"Admirers still speak of Merkel as if she is Europe’s last lion, the only leader with the vision and capacity to save the E.U. There is much that is admirable about the chancellor, but as things now stand she is likelier to be remembered as the E.U.’s unwitting destroyer."
Politics is also the art of knowing when to get out, when to retire. To do it with grace from power and strength instead of being booted out. Few manage to do this. Ms. Merkel has apparently overstayed her tenure as chancellor. When one gets booted out, there is unfortunately always collateral damage.
5
It’s a total false claim that Europe needs to regulate its immigration because it already does!
Laws are not the problem but persistent migration pressure and then the false meme of “Überfremdung” that took hold in millions of brains.
Actual migrant numbers to the US and into the EU are down. The real problem is perception. And of course the exploitation of fears by the right wing nativist parties and the American president who thinks has the right to meddle with European affairs as long as it plays well with his base.
Trump needs to go. That would be the most important single step back to an at least semi-sane political climate.
33
Exactly. Perception largely formed by both experiences & the news media can & does cloud our understanding. Populists prey upon this & sadly, this is far easier than explaining facts to people.
"Someday, a historian may take a close look at their complacency. With a nod to a previous era of blindness, the book could be titled “The Sleepwalkers.”" This book should be about us, not them.
I'll trade you a Trump for Merkel any day of the week...
34
While it's very easy for Americans to sit around and poke holes at Angela Merkel and the E.U., the fact remains that most Americans have no real knowledge of Europe or Germany, and tend to view the migrant problem happening over there through American eyes.
Being half-German and half-American, I've had the distinct advantage from viewing this situation from both sides, and know that the Chancellor had to walk a fine line in both answering to her humanitarian voice, and being the leader of a country that is still very much coming to terms with its own internal division since the end of WWII.
This path has not been an easy one. Especially since Horst Seehofer, former leader of the sister conservative party CSU, has been playing hardball with the number of refugees and immigrants that should be allowed asylum since 2015.
And now, with Bavaria setting up its own border patrols, Mr. Seehofer has thrown his alliance in with the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who also serves as Chairman of the right-wing, anti-immigrant Österreichische Volkspartei, or ÖVP.
There's no doubt that both Frau Merkel and Herr Seehofer are looking at the upcoming Landstag elections in Bavaria while trying to keep one step ahead of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland). But there's no doubt that something must be done to reduce the numbers of migrants flowing into the country and the rest of the continent.
The days of "Wir Schaffen Das!" are long gone.
It's the reality of its aftermath that awaits.
12
You make a good point. Immigration a la USA is not such a big deal until the Trumps and journalists of the land make it into one. Most Americans barely notice it. Not so in poorer southern European countries such as Greece, Italy, and Spain, where refugees from the horrors on the Asian and African continents try to make landfall.
The column seems to ask Merkel to be more like Trump! Merkel deserves applause for her courage and foresightedness, not criticism.
125
After bashing Chancellor Merkel and calling for her head, the opinionated and verbose Mr. Stephens calls upon what specific, alternative German politician, or politicians, to replace her in enacting his prescriptions to "save Europe"? We have radio silence Houston!
40
Bret--
You write:
"But Germany has been infected with the temper of the times..."
The role of the journalist is to try to uncover the reasons for the infection and then to try to stop the rot before it spreads by exposing lies and falsehoods. Not to blame the victims of the disease for not succumbing sooner.
48
Dear Mr. Stephens,
before you proclaim that Ms. Merkel must go, and that "She refused to cap the number of asylum seekers Germany would take," perhaps you would be well advised first to familiarize yourself with the German constitution (Grundgesetz). Article 16a reads, "Politisch Verfolgte genießen Asylrecht." I am assuming you do not know German, so I will present the issue in terms you might understand: It is not Ms. Merkel's whims that decide who enters the country, but the country's Basic Law. The country can change its constitution, but as long as there is rule of law, the Chancellor should probably follow it.
I look forward to reading better informed pieces from you in the future.
209
You will be waiting some time if this article is any guide.
2
Don't get your hopes up.
1
Yes and yes!
1
It would be way too much to expect the Gray Lady or Stephens to acknowledge that it has been US aggression in the Middle East, abetted by Saudi and Israeli allies, that set those waves of suffering humanity in motion to begin with.
But of course the US has offered almost zero assistance to Europe or the refugees to ameliorate the crisis that it created.
30
The only options Merkel had ranged from bad to terrible. There was no solution that would satisfy everyone. She landed on a moral, reasonable choice. Death on German borders, because the outsiders aren't ethnic Germans, is a terrible choice (look it up). You should also consult some national polls - -there is no one who can replace her, and she remains the most popular politician in Germany. America's lurch to the fascist right has only made Germans feel more proud of their nation's policies. Merkel has navigated the German ship of state skillfully.
35
When the West does it it is called imperialism and colonialism.
When it happens to the West it is called humanitarianism.
Western societies have value. They are worth defending. The West is not responsible for the problems of the world. Would be economic migrants must be stopped.
We can help them in their home countries. All over the world nations have kicked out Westerners and retaken their lands and heritage. They now come to the West to take more.
We are deluding ourselves if we believe that they will assimilate and give up their own cultures and mores. It is up to us, each of us, to realize that our cultures have value and to not cave into the nihilism of multiculturalism- a multiculturalism that is being followed toward cultural extinction.
14
May I remind you that only 2-3 generations ago, people who represent current mixed American Culture, came to this land with their own cultures and over time are now the Americans we see today. And everyone, except for indigenous peoples, have adapted, changed, borrowed, lent and "assimilated" to become our homogeneous multi-cultural America. Do not be afraid of the kinds of cultures coming into our land now. Have patience and see what you can learn from them, and be ready to teach them about yourself. Have no fear. A multi-culture only lasts so long before it all begins to meld together as one. Give it time. Relax. Be not afraid.
13
The West is not responsible for the problems of the world?
Really? The fact that western colonial powers drew maps in the Middle East that bore no relation to the people who inhabited those countries had not effect on them? The fact that climate change caused by western economic practices have made wide swathes of the globe uninhabitable or unsustainable is of no consequence? I think it is time to adjust your vision of responsibility.
12
@Larry Steckman,
People have caused climate change- all people. Westerners may have added more CO2 than others- but not more than any person, anywhere, would have added if they could.
Westerners are not some special breed of human- we have consumed no more than what any person would want to consume. We are just lucky enough to have access to the amounts of resources that all people want.
And no one has prevented people from peacefully re-writing national boundaries. Give credit where credit is due- people actually have the ability to make changes in their own lives.
1
''Europe’s immigration and refugee policies could be astonishingly generous...'' - It HAD to be, because after decades of continuous war waged by the west ( U.S. ) in the Middle East and elsewhere, that the refugees (millions upon millions of those displaced ) had to go somewhere, and Europe was the closest.
Coupled with that stream of humanity, was the mismanagement and corruption of failed states that have had war in their territories, war around their territories and war affecting their abilities to govern properly or maintain a basic level of security for citizens. ( let alone the west pillaging all natural resources from said countries)
Sure, in the eyes of the radical right, it's all the left's fault, but anyone with eyes can see that the root of the problem is to end the wars causing the financial burdens there and elsewhere.
THAT is not a left or right issue, but one of humanity.
16
Being as the wars and destabilisation in the Middle East are primarily the direct effect of US policy in regards to the region, and as the US has vast tracts of empty space. I would suggest that the US takes a proactive role in absorbing the human fallout from that policy instead of leaving Europe to mop up (I do accept that we also have an obligation as our governments despite popular opposition wagged their tales and followed the US like good little puppies. The other issue is the media's habit (no doubt to appease their respective left or right readership) of classing refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants as the same . They are not. The first group are transitory and mostly wish to return to their homes, the second are likely to wish to stay but would prefer to go home. The last group need to be heavily regulated in terms of numbers, the first two groups should be assisted no matter what.
4
Stephens merited respect for his anti D.J.T. stance when most Republicans are either in bed with the man or ominously silent.
Ditching Angela Merkel, one of the lone leaders left in Europe standing up for democratic values, as we limply watch Austria, Poland, Italy and a slew of others go fascist. That is madness.
72
Austria, Poland, Italy and a slew of others would not be going “fascist” if Merkel had adopted a sane migration policy.
it is shoking that serious people today can be so close minded and reactionary. we need to Merkels and less. idea tha we need "security" that's achieved through walls and military might greater than what western democracies already have is simply misguided. Merkel did more fir security of her people and western europe than nuclear arsenal and all the military might did. i don't understand how people do not see that.
8
If Merkel leaves and AfD takes over, it may be time to enact the Morgenthau Plan, especially inasmuch as current Western leadership contains no successors to FDR or Churchhill.
3
it is funny how the author want Merkel to step down because of her support of Democratic and humanitarian values. Seems like the author believes that when values are to burdensome it is ok to drop them And he is saying Europe doesn't like democracy? The author"s recipe for improvement is not less funny. Military power? What for? The USA didn't miss any good fight yet, and it will do it again and again. Why would Europe spend any money on military? For what purpose, unless they want to dominate World as the US does. Isn't better to spend this money on solving problems of Europeans or solve the refugees crisis? Or even shore up the economy?
15
"Funny" is not the term I would have used.
"Cynical," "ironic," " hypocritical" all come to mind as alternatives.
The basic principle is IGMFY - "I got mine, ...."
1
Apologists for Merkel keep saying that the refugees crisis is over, and Germany has handled the resulting problems as well as could be expected. That may be true, but the Middle East is still in crisis and likely to boil over, and the flood of refugees from African wars and natural disasters is hardly about to end. Over the next few decades, European countries will face continuing and almost certainly increasing pressure from refugees and economic migrants. It is imperative, therefore, that policies are developed that allow those countries in the EU that prefer to sharply restrict immigration (I would venture to say this now means ALL countries in the EU) to do so. The resistance to wholesale transformation of one's society by huge waves of immigration is not one of xenophobia or racism as much as a matter of the desire to protect and nurture what has been won over centuries of struggle.
I also don't doubt that the North American attitudes to immigration are going to shift to a more restrictive stance, even if parties of the left are in control. In sum, Europe and North America can no longer be the release valve for all the social and economic pressures generated by 6/7 of the world's population.
23
In case you haven't noticed, the planning for the future has been an effort of the EU for some time now. There is no indication that Merkel or anyone, in the US or EU, favors unrestricted immigration. What we see is a fearful reaction in states minimally affected by immigration (Poland, Hungary) and regions in places like Germany and the Netherlands which have seen very little immigration pushing a bogus policy with thinly disguised anti-democratic (and anti-semitic) overtones. The huge threat trumpeted is largely devoid of fact (Italy may be an exception in this respect).
7
History will record that Frau Merkel was a humanitarian who, as chancellor, was outdone by nativist opportunists for whom fear of "The Other" was their ticket to power.
One can be forgiven for recalling with no little trepidation that the Nazis employed a manifesto very similar to that of the AfD. They also came to power via the ballot box.
What will Stephens say when flamethrowers on the German right declare that Germany not only has a Muslim problem, and a North African problem, but it also has a modern Jewish problem?
18
When the choice is between a welcoming, humanitarian, benign and Christian leader and the German zealots who want checkpoints put at every border and are afraid of their fellow humans thinning out the Aryan purity of their society (sound familiar), Why is it that the nice one always has to exit?
15
Merkel has been in power for 13 years and ended up abusing power by making unilateral decisions for the whole EU. Her legacy will be of stoking the Right in Germany, insane open border policy to admit millions of a permanent alien underclass, and provoking the demise of the Union. Merkel didn't start out like this -- the lesson is that leaders in power for too long become ineffectual at best and abusive at worst.
11
Mr. Stephens, Merkel is not the problem -- she may be the only sane one left in the room. Donald Trump is the problem and while he may not have started it, he's on a course of real destruction simply to feed his ego. The last thing America needs is a dictator like Trump -- talk about following the leader. This vile man has turned everything upside down and for what, so he can have more power and money...As we know from Hitler, most people are too frightened to lead and so they follow and then say, "how could we have known that Hitler was going to kill everyone (mainly the Jews) who we don't like or we don't like the way they look. Are we supposed to just let Russia annex and keep annexing - like Hitler did. Your column is very misguided -- Merkel seems to be the only strong one in the crowd -- she shows the intelligence of Churchill in a sea of Chamberlains.
35
This is one of those instances where Stephens seems really to be surreptitiously in favor of the bad choice, here it being AfD. He tries to blame its rise on Merkel and says because of this Merkel must go, but we all know she is the only thing standing in the way of AfD. Reminds me of Newt Gingrich calling Social Security broken (therefore we have to get rid of it). The fact is the whole rise of populism arrives out of the '08 crisis and the depression that has followed, and immigrants are the scapegoats of the ignorant, the way they always are in depressions. If you want to know what is wrong with the EU, go back and read Krugman. (It has to do with the single currency.) You can skip this one.
9
Germany is doing a bang-up job of cleaning up our mess.
We killed, destabilized and un-homed millions in the middle-east. These refugees are looking for a new start. Europe is kindly, and struggling, to deal with our war-crimes.
The biggest problem Germany, Europe, and the world has, is our President Trump. A destabilizing force. Ruining trade and treaties. Setting back climate change attempts and the resulting refugees from the next big world extinction.
Brett, you don't mention Trumps ambassador to Germany. Richard Grenell. He has already inflamed the populace by backing and promoting the Right-wing /neo-Nazi's. Grenell has been roundly condemned in Germany after he said it was his goal to "empower" anti-establishment conservative forces in Europe in an interview with right-wing news outlet Breitbart. Grenell's language, Andreas Nick said, was "highly inappropriate" and, when translated into German, reminiscent of language used by extremist politicians in the 1930s. "If you translate 'awakening' and 'empowering' in this context, very ugly German language comes up, which resonates with the 1920s and 1930s," he said, adding that Grenell would "be well advised" to learn more about German history "and the sensitivities that result from that." "If he is not here to be a traditional ambassador but a PR person for the alternative-right movement in Europe," Nick said, "we will have an issue."
These are Republican spokespersons Brett.
Inflaming neo-Nazi's at home and abroad.
230
Sunnis and Shiites have been slaughtering each other for 1300 years. The occasional interference by western powers, however misguided, is hardly the cause of the problem.
Syria is the perfect example - Obama refused to intervene, it is entirely a domestic affair, with Russia supporting one side.
12
It is not Merkel who needs to go, but the unelected European Union bureaucracy. Voters across the continent (and most notably) across the Channel are rebelling against rule by technocrats who are not answerable to the people they govern. Stephens alludes to this with his discussion of the revised Constitution/ 'Lisbon Treaty.' No surprise there is pushback from the citizens. Reform EU governance so it is actually answerable to the citizens of its member states, and much of the populist ire will be channeled more productively.
7
Funnily enough support for the EU among European citizens is at a 35 year high, with 67% of Europeans believing that membership of the EU benefited their country. (See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-election-poll/poll-shows-support-f...
6
It's been hard for me to take Bret Stephens seriously since he neglected to factor in the impact of inflation on wages of low income Americans over the last 30 years, claiming they'd improved over this time frame when it fact they had declined. He subsequently admitted his mistake, but it was so glaring he has no credibility with me. That being said, Merkel has been tone deaf on immigration leading to things like Brexit and the rise of the hard right in many EU countries. Self inflicted injury on herself, her country and her continent.
6
Show me a democratic leader who made positive contributions after 10 years. There aren't any. After 10 years they may still be popular, but history records that they've accomplished all that they will accomplish.
2
Read some middle school history. FDR and his wife were doing a pretty bang-up job of leading the country during the Second World War, ten years after his first election.
Since so many are determined to appeal to the worser angels of our nature, I applaud Angela for appealing to the better ones. The industrialized powers have exploited and destabilized Middle Eastern and Latin American countries for a great while, and now the bill is due in desperate people who need help.
15
Hey Bret,
Please look at and comment on the US's disdain for democracy before barking at Europe.
The US republicans have been strongly pushing anti-democratic measures and programs for decades. They are are good at it, spare no expense and are ruthless.
The list: Citizens United, Gerrymandering, Voter ID laws to prevent people from voting, the Electoral college, the senate unfair representation, denying Garland a SC vote . The list goes on and on.
Before telling Europe they are undemocratic look at and speak to the US problems but I guess you are ok with the US being an aristocracy.
42
Whew! Why let facts get in the way of your foregone conclusion which is as simplistic as “US, bad, Europe good.”. Many of the facts listed are not anti democratic, but part of a republican ( small “r”) form of government. The Electoral College, equal representation in the Senate are both meant to protect the smaller states. Voter ID laws? Don’t have them in most states ( like NY). I would guess that most European countries have them, as well as national ID cards... which we do not have and never will. And before you go blaming the US for every global problem, don’t you think that the endless civil wars in Africa are a direct result of European colonization and the phony borders the Europeans dream? It’s complicated.
8
I think "muddle" is much too harsh a word. We watch the EU's and Europe's strains and constantly predict failure. 1st, they are entitled to the groans of their efforts, and 2nd, we've got a much bigger problem to take care of here. We - the USA - are far worse than muddlers right now. If Only! Trump were a "muddler".
16
Bret's offhand familiarity with world history and current events fails to convince.
He should stick with what he knows best- how climate change is a hoax, the latest flat earth theories, spineless liberals, etc.
14
This column was a waste of space and thought.
Get to work on why Trump must not stay. Our republic depends on this and a couple of other fixes, like publicly-financed elections so that money does not equal speech and corporations are not people.
You have a huge megaphone, don't squander its power.
29
You are using an unwise parallel, Mr. Stephens, to align the generosity of “sins of omission” of Chancellor Merkel with those malevolent “sins of commission” of President Donald Trump.
The United States of America is becoming, under Trump—in the comforting affirmation of the xenophobia that now describes it—very much like the Germany of almost 100 years ago that set out on a doomed and murderous road to racial purity.
Ms. Merkel, perhaps with Germany’s short and long history in mind, went too far in a humanitarian attempt to compensate for the results that its seduction to the populism that Adolph Hitler set in motion bequeathed to the world after 1945. “She must go, you write;” to be replaced by whom, a question you cannot answer.
The far worse problem for international stability resides here at home, sir. The springing forth of the xenophobic weeds in the European countries you mention (you neglected the Netherlands, by the way, and stumbling Spain, a nation wobbling out of rational orbit) coincide with the same rank outgrowths of white nationalism here.
The sharp focus of your concerned attention might be better addressed here, for we are now a nation not on the cutting edge of anything but are a thinly-disguised amalgam, playing the copy cat by reacting to the rumbles that have upset the internal circuits of the European coalition.
It was never, as in America, about low unemployment rates or high tariff bars—it was always about race—Africa and Africans.
Forever.
12
a "muddler like Merkel"? I'm glad you're in the U.S. with your stricter, authoritarian ideas where they belong. Thanks but no thanks Brett, clean up your own backyard before you start dispensing advice to others.
31
As ususal Stephens doesn't know what he's talking about.
I am lawyer who did my thesis on the formation of the European Union and has followed its legal development closely.
The "European Constitution" was a spectacularly badly drafted document. It was a project driven by Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Britain was the only country to send female reps. English women lawyers have been warning for years that the Frenchman-driven EU was not going to succeed if female reps from every country were not included in this constitution-drafing.
France still has a constitution based in "rights of man/citizen", something its courts recently ruled means men hold rights women do not.
Merkel holds her Chancellor job as female only because Germany was required to adopt an English-style constitution after losing its WWII invasion attempt of Britain. But it has not done the rounds of basic legal reform that Britain has done, most especially the 1991 Children Act reform that Britain's new Supreme Court President, Brenda Hale led (then an academic).
The Brits appear about to make another major reform to this law, perhaps the most profound reform of English constitutional law in 350 years.
7
Politics tend to be well behind events. In Germany, the asylum seekers are tapering off by the time the political system reacts to the issue.
This is a common pattern. "Crime" is tapering off by the time "fighting crime" gets a full political charge.
Politicians tend to deal with what is no longer a problem, instead of with the coming problems now building up. That is true of democracies, well done or poorly done. It is also true of a great many autocracies of various kinds, which simply refuse to deal with things until forced.
We would be far better served if we could find a way to make our politicians more responsive at least, and better yet more forward looking. That is a problem of candidate selection and issue advocacy. They follow money, and money arrives late after it was needed. We need to get the money out of the driver's seat, and get thinking people in.
My father used to say the same thing about traffic planning patterns. He was very pleased that when he took courses at Michigan State on traffic planning for city officials, the instructors knew that too. It was a truism back then. It hasn't changed.
People want leadership, from people they trust. They don't want to be frustrated and demanding of slow-acting or entirely non-responsive elected officials, but they are only offered two flavors of that.
6
If Merkel goes ... her replacement could be so much more damaging... fascism is still just under the surface there.
9
Sorry, West Europeans don't elect wannabe dictators as president. Germany is not Poland, Hungary, or Turkey. The threat to democratic institutions and processes is far greater in the US than in Germany today.
6
I sincerely hope that is the case. The other parts of Europe sure show troubling trends.
Perhaps Merkel has been in power too long and Germany could use a new face. However, at this time there does not seem to be a German politician that has a more commanding presence, particularly to the right of her. When calling for replacement of leadership there better be proven leaders waiting in the wings. In some cases almost anyone will do, I can think of thousands of alternatives to Trump. I am not intimately familiar with German politics but from here I am not aware of a more formidable German politician.
11
and herein lies the problem. There is nobody that could take her place. She has been the best chancellor Germany has had according to my German mother who has known them all. The issue is that in Bavaria you cannot vote for the CDU, you can only vote for the CSU. There are a lot of bavarians who are extremely unhappy with the challenge from within the party. Seehofer is not a popular guy in this part of the woods, but the only option if one wants to vote for Merkel.
5
Conservatives never miss an opportunity to call a moderate too liberal. This is how we arrived at a place where Obama (who was to the right of Nixon on many issues) was seen as extreme liberal by the GOP fan base. Merkel is right of center, just a tad to the left of Mitt Romney. I don't know whether she should stay or go, but I do know the never ending push to redefine the center by right wing pundits has not served this nation well.
95
Yes, directional politics are difficult
I bet Stephens has a healthy balance between work and leisure.
4
I love this guy but not this column. It reads like a child stamping his feet.
"Isn't 13 years enough". Provided she can hold a governing coalition together, it appears not. At least not for German voters.
"The stakes are too high to keep a muddler like Merkel" The passage from Norman Davies's book reads more like an argument to vote for her.
Oh, and thanks for the prescriptive list for how to fix the EU. I'm sure they'll get right to it on Monday so Stephens can get started on How to Achieve Mid East Peace in 500 words or less.
20
The stakes were much higher when you insisted there were weapons of mass destruction and the US should go to war! You are partially responsible for the lives lost these past 17 years and counting.
The stakes are much higher as our planet warms and you and your fellow republicans are the last holdouts to take action. You and your cohorts stand in the way of US action!
And you are worried about Angela Merkel!?
103
Merkel must stay. Macron must stay. May must stay.
Netanyahu and Muhammad Bln Salman must go.
Trump, Pence, Ryan and McConnell must go.
357
Theresa May is helping conservatives roll back progress in the UK, and her conservative party is Trump lite, taking away the rights and privileges of a government by and for the people (big fossil yes, wind and renewables no, for example, and honestly, fracking in their moors? How about the Grenfell Tower fire. So typical of the theft of the commons and deregulation).
The rest, you're right. But May is part of the problem, not part of the solution, which if you paid attention to UK events and politics, you would understand.
5
Music to my ears.
1
Amen to that
A challenge to Europe not sufficiently emphasized here is the Euro: it brings Europe great advantages, but it also deprives European nations of control over their own monetary policy. Oddly, it benefits Germany a lot: without it, the Deutschemark would be soaring right now; the Euro gives Germany a relatively cheap currency to help fuel their exports, and Germany also takes advantage of relatively cheap labor from freedom of movement. What the continent needs is tighter integration of monetary and fiscal policy so that it acts like one economy. Then their economy would more resemble ours in important ways.
4
Sounds like the sluggish monetary policy is just another example of sluggish European Union leadership. The fact that Brussels finally had to be forced to pay attention to Europe's inadequate refugee system by Italian and other national elections indicates lethargic EU leadership.
1
Mrs Merkel latest twist on the immigration policy that the EU 27 leaders decided only last week; and the morning after France and Austria rejecting after breakfast in their own comfort zone ( away from Brussels ); under the pressure of the Bavarian CDU - a coaliton Partner of Mrs Merkel, she has joined hands with France and Austria and rejected the Brussels deal . This is raising the question on the credibility of the European Union.
European Union has been Under scrutiny by the European public ever since its inception and lack of a pan european visionary leader has exasperated the public.
Mrs Merkel latest twist on immigration seems a great nail in European experiment.This is an anti-European stand which both Mrs Merkel and Mr Macron are inflicting to save their own existence in power.
Mrs Merkel 13 years in power outlived her credibility as a rational leader because most of her énergies are now directed to regulate her own existence and that is a valid reason that she must quit immediately.
3
Germans, like the rest of Europe, need migrants. The population of ethnic Germans is aging and declining. The answer might be to set up recruitment centers in much the same way as they handled labor migrants in the 1950s and 60s. They could select and transport the tens of thousands that they need and by so doing drastically reduce the number of asylum seekers who might try to qualify as labor migrants.
On a different note, if the CSU loses votes to AfD in the Bavarian elections in September, which seems likely, it will be clear that Seehofer's demand for a right turn was counterproductive. Just what would happen then is anyone's guess, but there are no good alternatives to Merkel.
14
There is no country on earth that needs more people. With the continuing developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, even fewer people will be “needed” to maintain high living standards.
1
The problem is that robotics are very expensive. You also have to take into account that globalization means the free movement of people too. Japan's economy has barely grown over the past 30 years.
Mr. Stephens, you write:
"Merkel created the conditions that gave the enemies of the European ideal their opening."
but also this:
"Europe’s crisis has finally reached Germany
evan as the objective state of affairs remains remarkably placid. "
You note several positive objective measures: unemployment is at a record low, there have been dramatic decreases in crime, refugees are coming at a lower rate and they are finding jobs.
And yet,
"But Germany has been infected with the temper of the times. "
In other words, things are working out fairly well, but the racists and xenophobes have done a good, perhaps Trumpian level, job of stirring up fear and hate despite an objectively placid environment.
So why do you think your policy recommendations will help? Sensible or not, a modest change in reality is not likely to change a political argument that has little to do with objectivety and everything to do with often unfounded fears and the politicians who feed on those fears.
Germans (and Americans) have to decide what kind of country they want to live in. What does it mean to be a German? (or an American?).
Is the majority willing to deal with a messy inclusive democracy or have they decided they rather have an authoritarian tell easy lies and blame people who don't look like them?
Ultimately it's not about tweaking policies.
Do most Germans (or Americans) share "the conviction that Western democracy [is] not for them.” or are they willing to fight for it?
35
Merkel has been in power way too long. She has done enough damage and should go. I expect the announcement any day.
10
Sorry, but the "muddler" here is not Angela Merkel, but the author of this piece, who has managed to combine so many sweeping generalizations, historical inaccuracies, and misleading statements that is hard to know where to start.
First of all, the European Union is a big, diverse collection of countries. You cannot put them all into one bucket. Statements such as "its integration and assimilation efforts were generally desultory or reactive" is just plain wrong. In some countries maybe, but most certainly not in all. Here in Germany, people, many of them volunteers, have been doing a tremendous job to help refugees learn the language, navigate the bureaucracy, get their children in school, find jobs and housing, etc.
Another example: the author states that "Grandiose declarations of Europe’s independence on the world stage corresponded with growing strategic vulnerability to Russia and the Middle East and deepening military dependence on Washington." Nonsense! Europe has always been strategically vulnerable to Russia and the instability emanating from the Middle East is the doing of the U.S., not the E.U.
I could go on and on, but there's no point. Mr. Stephens, just let me say that before you start calling for a new chancellor, why don't you worry more about what Trump is up to: he is destabilizing the whole world, the global economy, alliances such as NATO, the G7, undermining the WTO, etc. If anyone poses a threat to Europe it is not Merkel, but Trump.
533
Actually, while I tend to be a fan or Merkel, as Germany's leader she has made choices which have destabilized the EU (the poorly thought through open door refugee situation) and given Putin's man Trump an opening for the US to abandon NATO. I'm referring to Germany's abysmal lack of military investment. For example, Germany has 6 submarines, none of which are apparently functional. It's a much longer list. And a disgrace for the richest country in Europe. That's on Merkel's watch. As a longtime resident of the Czech Republic, her choices put my home at risk.
3
hb, I personally am no Merkel fan, though I think she is the only tenable person for chancellor in Germany at the moment and has done an admirable job in a difficult situation.
As to your comments on Germany's military: As a resident of the Czech Republic, you are undoubtedly familiar with Germany's militaristic past. After World War II, Germany was essentially demilitarized by the Allies. The German Bundeswehr was forbidden from engaging in any military actions that were not in self-defense--and for good reason!! Entire generations of Germans (at least in the West) have grown up with a pacifist mindset, which is a good thing.
If you recall, Germany--currently Europe's most powerful country economically--was highly criticized for throwing its financial weight around in the wake of the global financial crisis, especially with regard to the austerity policies imposed on Southern European countries (especially Greece). Can you really, seriously, tell me that you, as a resident of the Czech Republic, would pleased if Germany substantially bulked up its military spending and started flexing not only its financial power but also its military muscle in Europe?
Didn't think so.
"...the instability emanating from the Middle East is the doing of the U.S., not the E.U."
Because of Obama dithering in Syria permitting Russian and Iranian military intervention causing millions refugee flooding Europe?
1
Interesting that recent turn of events in Denmark on the enforced assimilation front isn't addressed here. Not what I pay the NYT for....
7
Brett Stephens would like Mrs. Merkel to quite her office. That is an easy demand to make, except for an American. Frau Merkel is the Un-Trump. She is moderate in every way. She seeks tirelessly to seek compromise with her opponents. She runs a government as a coalition with the Socialist Party. She obviously has a sense of ethics, trying to do her best for the people of Germany and Europe. She is an environmentalist, much mores than any other conservatives. Finally, a majority of Germans want her to remain as Chancellor. Neither they nor Brett Stephens can think of who might be an adequate successor for Frau Merkel. Stephens' failure to deal with this question makes his meandering attack on Merkel fairly meaningless.
146
Mrs. Merkel is the only one in Europe who seems to have the guts to stand up to our president in any way, shape, or form (though the Dutch prime minister did interrupt him the other day with a "No"). For that reason alone, she should stay.
236
Exactly. That now-iconic photo at the G7 said it all: The adults confronting the spoiled-rotten, petulant toddler, arms folded and pouting, with his deputy bully, the dazed-and- confused Warmonger Walrus at his side.
What a national embarrassment.
But that photo. Pulitzer, anyone?
OPTION A: paranoid racist fearmongers have to be told to stuff it
OPTION B: Merkel must bow to racist fearmongers
STEPHENS: "I'll take Option B please."
59
Such an inflammatory headline. Whether Angela Merkel stays in power or not is up to Germans. The U.S. has a history of removing people in power in other countries, not something that we should repeat.
125
Donald Trump approached Pres. Macron of France, asking him to have France quit the European Union. For doing this misdeed, Macron and France would receive excellent economic rewards from Trump. So said Donald, whose word is not worth the swamp it's printed on. It's not Merkel who is trying to destroy the EU, it is Trump and his godfather, Vlad the Putin. Merkel is doing her best to preserve democracy, both in Germany and the rest of Europe.
15
That's what she gets for working hard: all the blame. Once again we learn that goodness is its own reward.
Brett, in the style of one of your colleagues, you make running a leading world economy sound easy. In your next column, how about you write the ten steps national leaders can take to lead their countries through the early 21st century? It sounds like you've got it all worked out.
69
Can I get some Logos with that Pathos, please?
7
Exactly
1
What a wrong-headed piece. Ms. Merkel's generosity and humanity is a challenge to the darker forces in Europe, as it should be from a leader who grew up in an authoritarian regime. She combines the best of Germany--stability, democracy, a consciousness of the German responsibility to right past wrongs. Seehofer's maneuvers are simply politics without morality. Europe WILL disintegrate if it does not find a way to deal with the gradient of inequality between it and peoples to its East and South. But to blame Merkel for it is disingenuous at best.
210
Just because a political party doesn't want unfettered immigration from people who will not assimilate or who may be dangerous does not make them "xenophobes."
A phobia is an irrational fear. There is nothing irrational about wanting to protect your borders and make sure those coming in are properly vetted.
22
This should be 'Why Trump Must Go.'
There are many more ongoing and daily reasons for Trump to go than for any European leader.
291
Also, why the far right & far left gov'ts across Europe must go too.
Merkel will be remembered historically as the one who alone took down modern Europe. Welcome to the future Eurabia.
11
"a muddler"? Really, Bretster?
That unfair body-slam besmirches your otherwise cogent and effective argument. Merkel muddled Germany to the top of the world for 13 years. That ain't chopped liver. How about a lot of credit where a lot of credit is due?
And this migrant flood is an unsolvable problem, except on paper or maybe in an online exposition by armchair political pundits. Does any nation confronted with this problem have it right? Certainly not America with its family separations, cages, and losing track of the separated children.
267
Merkel has morals, which may disturb you. But my main question to you, sir, is - if Merkel is at fault for Europe's pro-fascist crisis - who is at fault for ours? I can see that great numbers of people here feel dismissed and ignored. Not all on one side or the other, either. But who is at fault for so many in our country falling for fear-mongering and lies? More positively: how can we correct this, if it is indeed a compass error?
128
I don't know if Merkel has ceased to be a conservative, but it seems evident she has not ceased to be a Christian.
252
I wonder whether Mr.Stephens was intoning "Merkel must go" when her finance minister's policies were subjugating the whole of Europe to an ideologically driven austerity policy. It's the combination of austerity which affected most the more vulnerable in European societies ─ including in Germany ─ with the laudable effort for the Syrian refugees pushed from one Balkan country to the other that created the feeling: "Why wasn't it done for us?" The irony, as so often, is that the politicians only started to seek solutions when the problem is already receding.
It is true that Merkel muddles through to the point when the cost for solutions multiply. However, her decision "we will get it done" was out of character, the one instance where she did right.
As someone who never cast a vote for Ms. Merkel, with many of my compatriots I feel it would be a cruel irony to have her "punished" for having it done right once.
17
Germans have a very distinct history with refugees.
One should get rid of Trump before worrying about Merkel. There is a fair number of foreign leaders who should be shown the door, she is not one of them.
412
DT was elected POTUS partly because of Merkel’s reckless policies. If she had not unilaterally decided to throw Europe’s doors wide open to any and all without even attempting to verify who these people were, Clinton would probably be our president and Brexit never would not have happened. A whole raft of eurosceptic parties that are now rapidly growing would have remained small and powerless.
2
But distracting us is the gambit of the right wing.
Look here, not there! Squirrel!
3
Angela is one of a small number of Western leaders who must take up the mantle that Trump has dropped. We need her, Marcon, Trudeau to keep the lights on while The USA wanders around in our Trump stupor.
441
Excellent reply BB
3
You say Angela Merkel must go, but then what? Who would succeed her? What other German has her gravitas and could effectively counter the threat to the liberal Western values that we see in much of the world today, including in Europe? Ms Merkel is one the few grownups left on the world stage. Let's hope she can continue for a while yet.
401
@Heinz Bachmann:
You put you finger on the problem! A problem Merkel created and with which she followed her own mentor, Helmut Kohl, who secured his own power by never letting any strong contender come up under him. It was literally Kohl's old age and the intervening SPD/Green coalition government that allowed Merkel to grab the leadership.
You only need to look at the collection of Merkel favorites in her own party (only women, by the way) to see that there IS NO qualified leader.
So what you are advocating is to hold on to the straw while the ship sinks, because letting go of the straw and actually start swimming is too scary!
Sorry, I can't agree with you on that.
And Ms. Merkel grew up in Eastern Germany with totalitarian rule before the USSR's collapse. She knows the corruption that comes when good people do nothing and believes liberal democratic values are far more beneficial that autocratic rule. FDR ruled for 13 years and likely would have been elected if he hadn't passed.
1
I admire Merkel quite a bit. She is an amazing, moral, intelligent person. However, I agree with this article completely. No country can maintain its culture or identity if it does not control its borders.
The basic issue is that the immigrants and refugees are from cultures that are diametrically opposed to Western civilization. These people do NOT assimilate and have no intention of doing so. While only a minority present a direct threat via criminal activity, that does not change the fact that they have no commitment or respect whatsoever for democratic institutions, secular humanism or religious freedom.
Aside from the instability caused by a massive influx of immigrants who have no vested interest in supporting their host country's laws and mores, the other threat posed is that the radical, authoritarian right-wing can use this as a tool to spread fear and reactionary responses in the population.
Ms. Merkel's humanitarian impulses are admirable, but the implementation is questionable for the reasons delineated by this article's author.
95
Respectfully disagree, Gaius, that "These people do NOT assimilate and have no intention of doing so." After WWII, when the country was in ruins (, West Germany took in millions of "guest workers," from Southern Europe (e.g. Greeks, Italians, Slavs, Spaniards) and Turkey. The idea was that these workers would help rebuild Germany and then return to their homes. But life doesn't work like that: they stayed here, had children, and then were unable or unwilling to abandon their children and grandchildren to return. Although the first generation of immigrants generally held on to their customs and language, the second and third generations did in fact assimilate, or at least settle on a blend of the two cultures. Intermarriages between Germans and Turks are common, and it is only in very insular enclaves that families retain the most regressive customs.
There is no reason why the situation with the latest wave of refugees (mostly from Syria) should be any different. Just this afternoon, when I was out walking my dog in our peaceful little town (pop. about 8,000), a group of 5 or 6 Syrian kids passed me on their bikes: they were laughing and smiling and fooling around -- and talking and hollering to each other in both their native language and German!
I personally am glad and proud that my adopted country has given these children the chance to laugh and play and grow up in safety. Cannot think of a better way to spend my taxes.
9
Gaius, have you spent any time among refugee and immigrant communities in Europe?
I have.
Sweden took in a far higher number of refugees proportional to our population than Germany did. I can assure you that the vast majority DO have "respect for democratic institutions, secular humanism and religious freedom". Most want very badly to be integrated into and become active members of Swedish society.
On what information or experience do you base your outrageous claims?
3
I do not believe that you understand the German system at all.
In Germany, everyone assimilates. The public schools have a mandatory religion class starting in 1st grade. Kindergarten (pre-school) is 100% subsidized. All children from non-German speaking households get special tutoring in German language and customs and traditions.
I moved with my daughter there when she was 3 years old, and her teachers we're surprised that we were not natives when she started school.
Adults have extensive integration courses offered as well, and you can't just get a job without proper training and certification, which is provided along with language and culture lessons.
Almost everything you hear about their immigration problem is invented and amplified by people with an agenda based on lies. Just like Brexit, and the "massive MS-13 problem" in the US.
5
As a liberal, I wish that Center-Right Angela Merkel was a lot of things she is not, but I am a realist about politics. That's why I voted for the imperfect Hillary Clinton. As long as Donald Trump is President of the United States, I am happy that an institutionalist, globalist, realist, leader committed to "liberal democracy" leads Germany and is cooperating with the other great democracies of Europe. You should be too.
Angela Merkel and EU regulations, are not the cause of the rise of anti-democratic sentiments in Europe or the United States. As has been revealed recently in England, billionaires and millionaires with ideological agendas like the Mercers and Aaron Banks, working in profitable partnerships with the Russians, fund propaganda campaigns like the one that won them Brexit.
Mr. Stevens, you need to give us more than the same tear-it-down advocacy of the Trumpsters and the Brexit voters. If Merkel leaves, is there anyone to fill the vacuum? Tell us what you think happens next. Maybe Donald's friend Vladimir can come in and fill the void.
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Angela Merkel no longer is Center-Right. That's why she is facing the mutiny within her own ranks. She abandoned her own party to move to the Left.
That is one reason why she should resign.
The other is that she is totally out of touch. The same happened to Obama after he was in power too long.
And the result was Trump.
Europe cannot afford that to happen.
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Merklel is centre-right within the context of Germany. She has not wavered politically. And Obama didn't "cause" Trump; low-information and bigoted voters, Putin and his cronies, and a news media blindly fixated on "balance" whatever the facts, caused the Trump nightmare.
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No, Trump was the result of greed and racism. Being nicer to those things does not make them go away, any more than satiating your house mice with nice food makes them go away.
While it’s true that there could be far worse politicians at the helm in Germany than Angela Merkel, it’s also true that she’s left a wake of destruction behind herself.
A broken-down system of immigration—see the recent scandal at BAMF, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Flagrant violation of Dublin accords and other agreements. Violent crimes and terrorism—just recently a migrant in Cologne was building an explosive device that could disperse ricin and kill hundreds. Open anti-Semitism. Knife attacks and rapes in public areas resulting in growing fear and uncertainty.
The rise of radical right politicians—neo-Nazis now in parliament. Possibly fatal weakening of the centrist CDU party. Extremes that invite comparison with the Weimar Republic. Brexit. Growing tensions and polarization within the EU.
A mismanaged transition to sustainable energy sources. An ecological policy that does not address issues caused by German industrial and agricultural interests, such as dramatic losses of green space and biodiversity.
Increasing media censorship and manipulated statistics. Further consolidation of state-supported news outlets.
Rising taxes and fees, falling wages. Bloated state bureaucracy. Financial commitments that will cause considerable suffering when debts need to be repaid. A straw-fire economy based on export subsidies and zero-interest loans.
I could go on…. Thank you, Mr. Stephens.
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I disagree. The people who must “go” are the cowards, xenophobes, bigots, and heartless leaders who will not do the right thing to help other human beings. I understand Mr. Stevens’ concern regarding the future of the European Union regarding internal Union politics. Their biggest threat remains outside the EU - Russia and more recently the President of the United States. Chancellor Angela Merkel did not start the delusional hatred that exists as the purview of demagogues to exploit. Chancellor Merkel did the right thing. Bigotry in not an inherent human characteristic. Not all humans hate and fear people who look differently or worship differently. People everywhere have a choice to become aware their learned anger and irrational fears are fueled and elevated by podium-pounding fear-mongerers hungry for power.
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This comment is as short-sighted as Merkel's actions were that are now bringing down the EU instead of addressing the problems underlying the refugee crisis at its roots.
That's what a capable leader is doing, not throwing up her hands in times of crisis and exclaiming that she had no alternatives.
That is an admission of incompetence.
And THAT'S why she must go.
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Merkel is the one world leader with the ability and experience to hold down the fort for the West in the era of Trump. Nobody is indispensable, but she's close to it. She may have miscalculated politically on migration, but that was a sin of a generous heart rather than the Trumpian sins that come from a malignant one.
Moreover, there is no one waiting in the wings to fill the role. Macron may grow into it, but he hasn't been in office long enough. Within Germany, there is nobody who has thus far been particularly impressive to step into the Chancellery.
These are dangerous times with an unhinged US resident seemingly allying himself with an aggressive and malignant Vladimir Putin while liberal democratic values are on the wane throughout Europe and the world. Merkel's great success has been in keeping those trends out of Germany at a time when the UK is sidelined from leadership while struggling with the fallout from the Brexit vote.
Far from wishing her gone, we need to hope she can stick around.
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There are plenty of op-ed pieces that remain on the online front page for days. This should have been one of them.
While the 2008 financial crisis and flat wages since that time laid the initial circumstances for voters to seek candidates viewed as outsiders, the reality is that the rise of anti-mass immigration parties and leaders in Hungary, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland and France is the DIRECT result of Angela Merkel's foolish and condescending choice to make what amounted to immigration policy for the whole of the EU. That this coincided with Islamist attacks (carried out mostly by first generation Sunni Muslim men who had been raised in the west) in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Berlin, San Bernadino, Orlando etc did not make voters in the EU or the US comfortable with the idea of mass immigration from the Muslim world. Anyone pondering the question simply could ask themselves, "how did this experiment work out in France?" however well intentioned, Merkel gave us Brexit, and Trump, and Orban.
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