Angela Merkel, After Defeat in Berlin: “We Have Accomplished a Lot”

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The following remarks by German Chancellor Angela Merkel were referred to here yesterday. Mrs. Merkel’s talk, which was given last Sunday evening after the election in Berlin, was said to be an apology for her migration policies, but it doesn’t sound like that that all.

What she seems to regret, among others, are these things:

1.   That she failed to indoctrinate the German people well enough in advance of the migration crisis;
2.   That she didn’t convince the European Union to adopt the immigration policies she wanted;
3.   That there isn’t quite enough housing for the “New Germans”; and
4.   That people don’t realize that full integration will be a very long process.
 

Despite the severe electoral defeats her party has suffered, she is not backtracking one inch on her migration policies. She’s just retiring “Wir schaffen Das” because it is now an empty, shopworn slogan, and has no utility.

Her speech gives me the creeps, almost as much as one of Obama’s speeches does. She’s not as narcissistic as he is, but her words are just as full of meaningless platitudes and self-righteous sanctimony.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00   Angela Merkel! Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday’s elections to the Berlin house of deputies
00:04   brought a very disappointing and dissatisfying result for the CDU.
00:08   Compared with last time the CDU has…
00:12   not had a good showing, with 6% less.
00:16   The Grand Coalition no longer has a majority,
00:20   and this is very bitter. We have, of course,
00:24   discussed it in detail in the presidium and the Federal Board,
00:28   and first, however, I would like to use this opportunity here to thank Frank Henkel
00:32   and all our Berlin friends, despite their disappointment,
00:36   for their wonderful support.
00:40   Since the elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern I haven’t had the opportunity,
00:44   as is my habit and a good habit in general,
00:48   to give an account of the result of the elections. I was in China at the G20 summit;
00:52   it wasn’t the right place, even if I had wanted to talk about it there.
00:56   Therefore today I would like to let you know my thoughts, perhaps
01:02   in a little more detail than usual, that I obviously had because of the situation.
01:08   Concerning both the elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the yesterday’s in Berlin,
01:14   each had without a doubt its political aspects related to its respective region,
01:20   and its typical regional reasons, but not simply those. I am the head of the party.
01:26   I’m not trying to avoid responsibility, and here I of course take
01:32   The part of the responsibility that I’m carrying as party president and Chancellor.
01:38   Perhaps the reason for the bad results for the CDU is the fact that some people didn’t receive
01:44   a full explanation for the direction, reason and basic convictions of our refugee policies.
01:50   Therefore I would like to take that endeavor:
01:56   Not for the first time, certainly not for the first time, but perhaps once more, more firmly:
02:02   The sentence: “Yes we can” [“Wir schaffen Das”] is part of my political work. It expresses
02:09   my attitude and my objectives. Much of the time this basic everyday expression
02:15   was over-interpreted, and even examined for some secrets related to it.
02:21   So much so that in the meantime I haven’t even wanted to repeat it.
02:27   It became a plain motto and almost an empty formula.
02:33   And the discussion about it became an unproductive, never-ending loop.
02:39   Some people, and this is important, find the sentence a provocation,
02:45   and this short sentence was never meant to do that. It was definitely meant as a recognition,
02:51   because I am convinced about the readiness of Germans to provide help,
02:57   for all the people who live here, who have a lot on their plate,
03:03   but it’s not reflected in these three too-often repeated words.
03:09   The task of giving protection to hundreds of thousands of people
03:15   that has come to our county, at least for the time being,
03:21   cannot be done easily and certainly not overnight. My mission is organizing the work
03:27   of the Federal Government, make sure that the regions and the counties get enough support
03:33   in order to house the arrivals in the best possible way,
03:36   and that those who can stay and who want to stay integrate as quickly as possible,
03:40   and those who won’t stay could consistently be returned. This cannot, however, be done quickly.
03:51   Also, because, during the last couple of years, God knows, we didn’t do everything correctly.
03:57   Because we really weren’t exactly the world champions in integration,
04:03   because we also waited too long before seriously asking ourselves
04:06   the question about the refugees. We now have to improve (as it were): even I.
04:15   I as well trusted the Dublin process [Schengen Zone rules] for a long time, which was supposed
04:21   to remove the problem from us, the Germans. And that wasn’t good.
04:27   And if I could I would rewind the time back many years, in order to better prepare ourselves,
04:33   the entire Federal Government, and all those responsible, for the situation
04:39   that found us rather unprepared in late summer of 2015. Since then
04:45   we’ve been trying with all our might to create, to fix, to direct all those things
04:51   and we have accomplished a lot already, a great number of things; still, I know that
04:54   we’re failing that in many places. I can clearly see that it wasn’t right
04:59   for the refugees to be housed only in gyms and for much too long; that the asylum process
05:04   on average is still taking too long; that we’re for the moment offering too few
05:10   language classes that we don’t have enough teachers; and that the huge task
05:14   of integration in the job market is still before us. We’re working on it tirelessly,
05:21   we created laws, for example concerning security structures and security authorities,
05:27   in order to protect ourselves even more effectively from terrorist attacks, not only, but also,
05:33   because not every refugee arrived to this country with good intentions We arranged
05:40   additional places in Banf [Bestellanforderungen , requisitions]: everybody is hurrying to complete it,
05:46   but you also know that I’m looking not only at government arrangements,
05:58   but also, I’ll never tire of saying this, I’m always so thrilled at how tirelessly
06:04   the volunteers are working, how they compensate for
06:10   what we, in the government, haven’t organized well enough. All that
06:16   is an opportunity for me “to correct partially or entirely my policies concerning the refugees,”
06:22   as it was put a week ago in a poll, where that was the wish of 82% of people.
06:28   If I could find out from that number what exact changes of direction those people wanted,
06:34   then I would be ready to think about it and also talk about it.
06:40   However, this poll doesn’t inform us about that. If it is supposed to mean
06:46   that people simply want no foreigners, and especially no Muslims,
06:52   then this is against our constitution, human rights, but above all
06:58   against the ethical basis of the CDU [Christian Democratic Union],
07:04   and against my personal beliefs.
07:07   The CDU and I cannot go in this direction. If, however, what the 82%
07:16   are really trying to tell me is that, independent of the concrete measures
07:22   that politics makes decisions on, that it means that the situation that shouldn’t repeat itself,
07:28   in the way that happened last year, as a result of the humanitarian crisis,
07:34   with all the uncontrolled and unregistered flow of people,
07:37   then I’ll fight so this won’t happen again. All the measures
07:46   in last couple of months were taken with this objective: the repetition of this situation
07:52   is not wanted by anyone, myself included. I wouldn’t like to promise what I cannot deliver,
07:58   but by now there are fewer and fewer people coming in our country. This is of course also
08:04   the result of the closing of the Balkan Route; however, what is helping the most, and I know
08:10   it’s controversial, but what is helping the most is the EU’s agreement with Turkey.
08:16   I still consider it a very important, a very meaningful agreement,
08:19   And if the negotiations still continue, for example concerning visa regulations.
08:29   But with this agreement we have already managed to fight smugglers efficiently
08:32   in the Aegean Sea. It saved many lives, and that is great.
08:41   And with this agreement we come to the most important part of our refugees policies:
08:47   the fight against the root causes of their flight. This is unavoidable,
08:53   and it is good and right. However, what is absolutely not good is the EU’s
08:59   refugee policy, in general and in details. I have said it many times, and
09:05   I’m repeating it now: we still have no common insight in Europe
09:11   to be able to recognize this flight of so many people for what it is:
09:14   a global and moral challenge; and we need to draw conclusions in Europe.
09:23   And the fact that it hasn’t succeeded yet is a burden for me.
09:29   And for that reason I’m committed with all my strength that we wake up
09:35   to what the EU once stood for: solidarity and maintaining values.
09:41   For that Bratislava [EU summit on Sept 16] was simply a beginning.
09:44   Everything I’m telling you here won’t convince those who scream only one thing all the time:
09:53   “Merkel must go!” It’s clear to me. It means, that we’re living these days in “post-facts times”.
09:59   Which means that people aren’t interested in facts any longer;
10:05   they are solely following their feelings. And the feeling of some is that I am thrusting
10:08   our country into a foreign infiltration, that Germany will be soon unrecognizable;
10:17   and it would be illogical to try and fight it with facts; also if, and
10:23   you know me well enough, I would be able to destroy it right away.
10:29   So I will instead give them my feeling: I have an absolutely certain feeling
10:35   that we will come out of this complicated stage
10:41   better than when we entered it.
10:47   Germany will change, just like we all change when we aren’t made of stone.
10:53   It will however not allow its fundamental solid basis to be shaken.
10:56   This didn’t even happen last year, during that year so restrictive and full of uncertainty.
11:05   Who, then, other than ourselves should be able to find something positive in that year?
11:11   I’m deeply convinced of it, and this is what guides me as Chancellor and party president.
11:17   Those are my thoughts, after the regional elections and this summer,
11:23   about winning back the trust of the citizens that we couldn’t convince today,
11:29   with real solutions, step by step.
11:35   I apologize, I ask for your indulgence that I kept you so long with my explanations.
 

27 thoughts on “Angela Merkel, After Defeat in Berlin: “We Have Accomplished a Lot””

  1. Angela Merkel: “We Have Accomplished a Lot”
    She is right! After Hitler, she is repeated destroying a whole continent again!

    • Correct. She is only disappointed that there is resistance to migrant quotas, hardly surprising since it is billeting at national level. However, I am sure she draws comfort from the outcome of the UN Summit this week: more migration, more open borders, more rights for immigrants and more NWO.

    • Actually I believe there is no comparison between Hitler and Merkel from a strictly economic standpoint. Merkel is a communist at heart yet who has been spotted in Chile looking over property to buy. The rapid economic growth during Hitler’s 10 year-reign was astounding, he took a country on the verge of utter ruin and transformed Germany into one of the most advanced economies in the world at the time, despite his methods.

  2. I can’t even stand to look at these people, let alone listen to them. They’re like aliens. Evil aliens. Or demons.

  3. A speech of unbelievably vagueness and obtuseness. An 82% result was registered in a poll but the interpretation of the results awaits the discovery of a new Rosetta Stone. Whatever does it tell us?

    Oh, wait. If it merely registers unhappiness over how the flow was uncontrolled and unregistered, she’ll fight to correct that. More refugees, just handled better.

    Integration is just assumed to be the only proper goal. The option of sending refugees back is just preposterous, not worth mentioning.

    European elite discourse is uniformly vague, answers questions no one has asked, and assumes popular devotion to “principles,” to “European values,” and to “human rights” that never seem to encompass the rights of white Europeans.

    Above all, it studiously and resolutely assumes that borders are optional to refugees, force (including deadly force) is never an option, failure to adhere to national and local laws and customs must never be punished, assimilation of Muslims is a certainty, families must be reunited (in Europe), huge financial outlays to and for “refugees” are a moral necessity, foreigners go to the head of every line, deportation is the choice only of neo-Nazi reprobates, protest is criminal, economic opportunists are identical to genuine refugees, Christian refugees require no special protection, and no efforts whatsoever need be made to cease participation in and support for military actions that are the cause of the refugee “crisis.” Multiculturalism and the transformation of Europe into a third-world pit of rape, jihad, terror, garbage, and sharia are just assumed to be what any normal person wants for his homeland.

    In short, the European political class is all about obtuseness, evasion, lies, stupidity, surrender and suicide. Incredibly, they posture as patriotic, normal, sane people.

  4. 5. Ignorant German right-wing neo-nazi’s are attempting to destroy my humanitarian Nobel prize by voting illegally against my dictates because they are racist, homophobic, zenophobic, islamophobic, racist-racists who just hate because they are right-wing haters who have no vision and hate, and are racists.

  7. She is sowing the seeds for extremism. Right now AfD is not extremist, they are just concerned with the rightful observation that Germany and Europe as a whole is heading for the abyss. The response of Merkel is typical of that of a government from when she grew up rather then what we thought until recently the German government is standing for. Sadly we can assume Merkel will try to suppress the AfD that gives us the last hope for a peaceful revolution and a de-islamisation of the West. Having snubbed last chance saloon, ext station is going to be far more sinister and Merkel will reap what she is sowing now. We all know what that is. Lets hope Hitler will continue to be the most devastating canceller of Germany, I am not so certain any more.

  8. Poor Angela is delusional. She should be examined. If she thinks Germany can still be German after all of those Muslims move in, she is crazy. The do NOT assimilate, they try to dominate.

  10. Merkel is certainly right to say that integration will take “a long time.” Turks for example have been in Germany for 50 years, and the second and third generations are little better integrated than the first generation. There are many third-generation Turks who reject everything about Germany (except welfare, of course) and can barely speak german. They also tend to be much more radical and assertive about their religion and culture than the first wave was.

  11. The speech was aimed at women and children who don’t understand and will fall in for the halftruths. She is obviously one of them, so it is not a problem for her to believe what she just said. It takes some [manly generative organs] to understand real physical power – and these “weaklings” won’t get it before their fairy tale world collapses:

    If you want peace, prepare for war.

    She is preparing peace, and doesn’t see the consequences!

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