Looming Doubts : Merkel's Grip on Refugee Crisis May Be Slipping

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/criticism-mounts-of-handling-of-refugee-crisis-by-merkel-a-1056315.html



The flow of refugees into Germany is continuing and the government in Berlin has found no way to slow it. Faith in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ability to handle the problem is plunging -- especially within her own party.

Looming Doubts : Merkel's Grip on Refugee Crisis May Be Slipping
By SPIEGEL Staff
October 06, 2015 – 01:06 PM

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'Close To the Limits of Our Possibilities'

It was only four weeks ago that the Germans cheerfully welcomed the first refugee trains as they arrived and fêted the chancellor as "Mama Merkel" for her generosity. Early on, Merkel's message to her country was: "We can do it!" Lately, though, many dispirited communities are responding with, "We're beat." Many helpers are "at wits end," says Ralf Jäger, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. And with no end in sight to the influx of refugees, the mood is worsening by the day. If the inflow remains as high as it has been in the past few weeks, according to expert forecasts, some 1 million people will have arrived in Germany by the end of the year -- a greater number than ever before in the country's history.

"We in Germany are rapidly approaching the limits of our possibilities," Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), told SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview last Friday. "Although the (country's) asylum law doesn't have an upper ceiling, there are real limits to how much pressure we can put on our cities and towns."

Concerns are growing that Germany is already there. Tensions among residents of often overcrowded refugee hostels, for example, have boiled over into violence in some facilities. Furthermore, officials from police officers to border control agents and government functionaries are desperately searching for ways to bring the number of refugees under control.

The debate is having a negative impact on Merkel's public image. A poll by Infratest Dimap for German public broadcaster ARD last Friday showed that the percentage of Germans who are "scared" about the number of refugees entering the country has increased from 38 percent in September to 51 percent today. The same poll also showed Merkel's approval rating had dropped by nine points to 54 percent, her lowest in nearly four years.