Mainz: The jihadist attacks in Paris may be part of a wider series of strikes the Islamic State group plans in Europe, Germany’s interior minister warned Wednesday.
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It is when she has stepped out of this pattern and acted boldly – notably by deciding to scrap nuclear power after Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster and again in the ongoing refugee crisis – that she has invited most criticism and opened herself up to attack. The German Football Association (DFB) had at the weekend already come close to calling off the match, while Belgium have cancelled their friendly against Spain today. The report said five terrorists had placed explosives in the stadium and targeted a train station in Hanover. The ringleader planned to film the attack. Merkel took her Interior Minister’s advice and cancelled the match before flying back to Berlin.
In the event, police failed to find any explosives in or around Hanover. Yet Germany’s security services remain on high alert and continue to speak of the “serious terrorist threat” facing the country.
Speaking at a conference earlier in the day, Merkel ruled out any increase in taxes resulting from the additional costs of Germany having to provide shelter for refugees, which the government expects to top 1 million this year.
“If this were confirmed, this would be first IS attack in Western Europe, but probably not the last”, he said, adding that last Friday’s attacks revealed “well-trained perpetrators and lengthy, highly conspiratorial planning”.
It merged with the Christian Democrats, then led by chancellor Helmut Kohl, who fondly and patronisingly dubbed her “the girl”.
Instead, both Germany and Austria have called for efforts to strengthen controls at the EU’s external borders, stressing the need for the European Union to speed up moves to stem the influx of refugees into Europe.
Yet his remarks were merely the tip of an iceberg of opposition that Merkel now faces. Opinion polls show that a majority of Germans are unhappy with her refugee policies.
While a top security official rebuffed calls for deploying the army in Germany following the Paris attacks, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen declined to rule out dispatching military forces to Syria. Merkel’s conservative party grass roots are up in arms; at a meeting of the party faithful in the east German town of Schkeuditz last month she was confronted with placards that read “Stop the refugee chaos” and “De-throne Merkel”. Such an outcome would make it Germany’s third-main political party.
Merkel has also repeatedly ruled out placing an upper limit on the numbers of refugees entering the country.
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Merkel has defended her tough-love policies as “without alternative” – a term much mocked as a rhetorical bludgeon and voted the most offensive phrase of the year in 2010.
