Insightperspectives January 1, 2016 v3

adopting EU rules in the field of justice and home

affairs – read more in the

When Mrs. Merkel granted visa to all Syrian refugees in

August, she may have read sentiments correctly in

Germany; but the Chancellor underestimated the

reaction in the majority of other EU-countries. Indeed,

Berlin’s single-handed response to the refugee crisis

has reignited nationalist sentiment in a number of

European countries. In Eastern Europe,

Chancellor Mrs. Merkel’s “wir schaffen dass”

has been answered with “…..aber nicht mit uns!”

Indeed, Europe has plunged into the worst crisis since

WWII. The situation is worsened by the fact that Berlin

is now threatening countries not willing to take their

“fair share” of an increasing number of refugees with

economic and legal consequences – read the Spiegel

Online article,

Ironically, at the same time as more European countries

see Mrs. Merkel as a destabilising factor, the

and

named Mrs. Merkel “person of the

year”. In Russia, the president, however, could not care

less; what matters to Mr. Putin is that Mrs. Merkel’s

spontaneous decision-making has provided a highly

unusual political comeback to a cornered Moscow –