“That’s impossible”, Manuel Valls told a crowd of journalists.
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Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been able to enter the Schengen zone, mostly from Greece, and reach Western European states without having to register anywhere along the way. “That’s impossible”, the Prime Minister’s office said, offering what it says is the correct quote statement. He suggested that Europe should set a specific limit on the number of asylum seekers it takes in. Most, however, stated the need to strengthen controls on the outer borders for those entering the zone.
“If we don’t do that, then the people will say: Enough of Europe”, he said.
Before the Paris terror attacks, Valls had pushed for a Europe-wide strategy for dealing with migration and refugees.
“Europe must say that it can no longer accommodate so many migrants, it is not possible”, Valls said during a lunch with foreign media in Berlin.
With the terror threat in Germany also high, the government is stepping up security and intelligence gathering at home, she said. At the same time, an existing coalition has been conducting flights there for around a year.
But a Forsa poll on Wednesday put her conservative bloc up three points at 39 percent due to the effect of the Paris attacks, which Forsa chief Manfred Guellner said drives voters back to the incumbent party.
The offer came a day after Merkel pledged in Paris to “very soon” decide how to help its closest European Union ally battle the IS group in Syria, and after she met cabinet ministers in charge of security and the major parties’ parliamentary groups.
“If you send German Tornados to Syria, you only create more terrorists and increase the danger of an attack in Germany”, Sarah Wagenknecht said. “When additional engagements are needed, we are not going to exclude that possibility from the outset”.
It was Germany’s “duty to reflect” and to “act quickly”, Mrs Merkel said in Paris, after being urged by President Hollande to commit more resources, in the wake of the Paris attacks.
Otte said that “the IS can only be defeated militarily, therefore no idea must be ruled out as we engage in the fight against Islamist terrorism”.
Welt came up with its total by adding that number to the 758,000 recorded by the German states at the end of October.
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European Union countries are lining up in opposition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door refugee policy with some countries closing their borders and others establishing strict border controls to try and slow the flood of refugees.
