Angela Merkel did it again. When she was asked at her annual summer press conference last week whether she regretted taking in about aalmost 1m refugees in the course of in 2015, the German chancellor repeated with confidence her now famous words, “Wir schaffen das” (We can do it).
Many, even some in her own party, reacted with bewilderment and anger. How could she be so stubbornly confident inof the rightness of her policy of openness is correct after a week in which there were that saw four deadly attacks on German soilwith axes, guns, machetes and explosives, three of them committed by refugees? Not a week goes by without news about sexual harassment by refugees in public baths or during music festivals. Meanwhile, the costs of feeding, housing and educating migrants are quietly climbing and climbing. A large number of them Many will never be able to make their own way on the labour market.
How can Ms Merkel be so optimistic? It is because the failure of this policy is simply not an option for herMerkel can hardly come out and say: sorry, it was all a big mistake, and send everybody home. It has to work and there are signs that, by and large, it will, by and large.