“France is taking in as many refugees as we are in the district of Allgäu,” Horst Seehofer, the Christian Social Union (CSU) state premier of Bavaria, told the daily Passauer Neuen Presse. “That is selfish. When things get tough, there is no solidarity in Europe any more.” French officials have said they would take in up to 24,000 refugees this year; Germany is expecting to take in 800,000 – Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel is even figuring on a million.
But the criticism goes both ways. French politicians, from the right as well as the left, are baffled by Merkel’s open-door policy. “The generosity of the German people is laudable, but Merkel made a huge political mistake when she put out her unilateral siren call to refugees,” Socialist Malek Bouith, himself the son of Algerian immigrants, said earlier this week on French television. “Mrs. Merkel’s behavior is starting crises for Germany’s neighbors – first and foremost France.”
Sarkozy – who may well stand in the next French Presidential elections, and who during his time as head of state worked closely with Merkel – has warned that a continuing influx of refugees could “dissolve French society.” He is also against quota rules. In June, Sarkozy said acceptance quotas were the political equivalent of a plumber trying to distribute water more efficiently in an apartment after a pipe burst, rather than stopping the flow.
Last week, former conservative minister Patrick Devedjian, who is of Armenian descent, offered a statement even more abstruse when he said: “The Germans took our Jews and gave us Arabs.”
It was clear from the start that Germany’s refugee policy would be a golden opportunity for Marine Le Pen. “I accuse the German chancellor of burdening all of Europe with illegal immigrants after she already burdened it with her financial order,” Le Pen said, deftly touching upon two sore spots for the French people.
It is not just French politicians who think differently than Germans when it comes to the refugee debate. French society does as well. According to a recent poll, about 50 percent of those questioned said they did not want to take in any more refugees. And over 60 percent said asylum applications from Syria should be handled “like everybody else” – exactly the opposite of the “culture of welcoming” that is being propagated by all of the German parties represented in parliament.
