11-25-15
I remember 9-18-15, my first article on this refugee crisis was published in the Tribune Review after I returned from the Czech Republic. This blog and my Twitter account billrav/Visegrad4 CZ started sometime in October. I am somewhat consumed with it and believe urgent and drastic measures are needed to save Europe as we know it. But it is quite frustrating for me that while plenty has happened the last three months, including the Paris attack, that nothing seems to have changed. The entire EU seems held hostage by Angela Merkel and her insistence on "no limits" and her inertia and lack of will to seal the external borders, and to actually deport forcefully (since the migrants will not leave on their own) those who are there illegally. How can one leader of a single state, albeit an influential one, yield so much control over an entire continent?
I had respect for Merkel before this crisis, she seemed driven by rational thought, not emotional based decisions. The refugee crisis has changed her. This utopian "vision" she has acquired as some modern day Messiah has not only blinded her of all realism, but has paralyzed her from actually taking any steps to reverse her prior mistakes. And despite the spin of her apologists at The Economist, Merkel intensified the crisis with her words and actions and allowed this chaos to take on a life of its own. The Economist may believe she is "Indispensable", but she has lost the confidence of much of Europe.
This simply cannot go on as is...it is not sustainable, something must change for Europe is overrun now. How many meetings and summits can one have without getting anything done? What is Team Juncker doing besides lecturing Eastern Europeans about "solidarity" and "humanity"? Merkel and the EU talk, talk, and talk.......yet nothing is being done to secure the borders, to deport the economic migrants, and to confront Turkey and their network of human smugglers. Merkel weakly says that the migrants will have to go home, but 193,000 have these "orders" and they are still there. Amazingly, the external border remains wide open and still more are coming, instead of being sent back immediately. Merkel actually wants 500,000 more a year directly from the camps via Turkey in exchange for a promise from Erdogan (a double crossing tyrant) to stop the smugglers he houses from sending more. This is a non-starter and just a ploy to quiet her critics. It will not work.
Merkel and Co. are not serious about the above or they would have gotten it done months ago. There are no excuses during times of emergencies, which leads me to believe that Merkel has not given up on her original, misguided plan. I still believe Merkel will stick to her no limits pledge, attempting to force Eastern Europe and the Visegrad4 nations into an endless and binding refugee redistribution scheme. This, deep down, is her only plan and it must be rejected. It is the only way to send her the message that the solution lies not with redistributing limitless refugees, but with securing the borders to limit the refugees.
The Visegrad4/Eastern Europe and Merkel/Western Europe are worlds apart and I cannot see how they can stay together if this continues. The lack of solidarity lays with Merkel, Greece and Western Europe. We don't need anymore time-wasting meetings or pontification on the "values" of the EU, we need action. Before anything can change, the borders have to be shut and those economic migrants must be sent back. Not only does there have to be limits, but there must be "major reductions" via deportation of all the economic migrants.
For what type of "values" puts the security of your own people at risk in the name of "humanity".
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