A teenager. An axe and a knife. A hand-painted Islamic State flag found in a room. The first major attack committed in Isis’s name on home soil was not what Germans have been bracing themselves for.
We feared there would be clandestine cell structures, months of elaborate planning, and then havoc, like in Paris and Brussels. So what happened near the Bavarian town of Würzburg on Monday night when a young refugee severely injured four people and was shot dead by police, is by no means the worst-case scenario. But in terms of political impact, it was huge.
.... There’s a strong case to be made that, despite Würzburg, taking care of refugees is still far better than sending them back to war zones, and that it’s in the long-term interest of Germans (and other Europeans too) not to shut themselves off.
But advocates of Willkommenskultur have been on the losing side of the public debate since the events that unfolded in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. They’d be well advised to acknowledge that the open-door asylum policy was overly idealistic, and that they underestimated some of the challenges posed by mass migration. [342 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 508 votes] ".... despite Würzburg, taking care of refugees is still far better than sending them back to war zones"
Not for the innocent victims of violent attacks, who are still in hospital care. What a tasteless article. And you admit this guy is possibly from Pakistan, not from a "war zone" but just another without paperwork who says whatever will get him access to western Europe. He is also probably not 17 judging by his pictures. Shame on Merkel.
[2ND 464] Germany of the future will look a lot more like France I predict high unemployment as many arrivals choose not to work and ghettoes and mutual suspicions. France today is Germany 2020. What hope for Europe then?
[3RD 430 ] .... what seems to be forgotten in all the left wing hand wringing about Europe's duty in this "refugee crisis" is a Govt's first duty is the security of its own population. Even genuine refugees need not be admitted if they threaten that security, never mind those who pay smugglers and peddle a fake story.
The Guardian is wilfully ignoring the bigger picture here, because the population increase in the migrants' countries of origin is so great that even if Europe took 65m people in 2017, that would still be less than the babies born that year.
This is not a "refugee crisis" is an over-population crisis, and there's no question its going to pretty much destroy MENA - the only question is whether we let it destroy Western Europe too; to absolutely no avail to anybody.
[4TH 427] This is the reality of the "unaccompanied child refugees". Adult men with no paperwork. Not the kids with tricycles from Guardian stock photos, whose parents have been cropped out for propaganda purposes.
[5TH 380] They might slam the door shut but the horse has bolted. Germany will have to get used to frequent violence as France has to. Merkel has blood on her hands. And stop calling this ISIS attacker a refugee.
[6TH 321] Plenty of us BTL warned of these things, when this paper and even the Murdoch press was demanding we accept substantial numbers here in the UK after the death of a child during a crossing from Turkey.
[7TH 304] Merkel was an idiot to open the floodgates
She effectively tipped the scales and caused BREXIT and has sow immense disunity throughout Europe. [Guardian Cif] Read more
