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Storm in a tea cup, now all over!

Yes, by Merkel allowing Bavaria to close their border with Austria to migrants and agreeing to build camps to house asylum seekers (I think there's a name for those). She's finished, it's just a matter of time now. So hardly a storm in a teacup.

As an aside, this essentially means border checks at the German/Austrian border, yet the EU won't even entertain the idea of the same happening between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

As it shouldn't.

Definitely not a "storm in a teacup", wrong phrase to use here. There is a deep division not just within Germany, but the EU. The German government is held together with glue and tape right now, and the EU is not functioning, and is headed either for a split-up, or at best a less centralized and more loose confederation working with bi-lateral deals between countries or groups of countries (like the V4, which I think is a good thing).

It's not a "storm in a teacup", it more like an earthquake that will change the political structure of Europe.

No details have yet been reached on what is meant by "how to prevent illegal immigration across the Austrian-German border in future". Maybe the border will be closed and border checks instituted at the German/Austrian border or some other solution offered.
If they do close the border it will not be the first time an internal border has been closed, see Norway in 2016.
Ireland and UK and others never did join Schengen; no big deal to have closed borders.

None of this is new, Merkel's situation is irrelevant.

It's been clear since the mid '00s that the EU is doomed to remain a mere economic union. Groups of countries within the EU will cooperate more deeply than others but that's about it.
If Merkel goes this won't change. Nor will the EU die without her.
Dream on.

In any case, this is the worst possible ending for Mrs. Merkel.

True. Basically Seehofer got what he wanted. Let's see how Merkel tries to spin this as a victory nevertheless.

Not long ago you were telling us they don't have enough guiards.

So, if that is true, they took a decison they cannot implement. I would hardly call that "all over now".

Does not matter if they cannot implement it; Seehofer scored a political victory and he will not spoil it by digging too deeply into how it is implemented in reality.

That is, until some undercover journalist shows how easy it is for some asylum seeker already registered in another country to walk over the border unchallenged and the rotten tomoatoes start flying again.

You can build a house on sand but you can't rely on it to keep you dry when the tide comes in. This is the lesson Merkel has been learning, and it would be very short sighted of Seehofer to fall into the same trap.

...yea, shocker, if there was only some kind of sign that it was coming....

I wonder if there's any European politician more hated than Frau Merkel. I personally think she was incredibly naive, but apart from the refugee issue, does she really deserve this spite..

more hated by whom?


There are also a lot of poeple who like her. Unfortately for her, they are mostly on the left and so wouldn't vote for her anyway.

I wonder if she really thought that one through.

That's a pretty big caveat...

Would not be a trap for Seehofer?

He could easily blame Merkel by saying she starved him of resources or some such!

Funny thing about this Merkel/Seehofer deal, and the wider EU migrant deal, is that they're basically doing what I and many others on here called for three years ago i.e. off-shore detention centers and closing borders. Only we were called Nazis for suggesting such a solution.

Many people believe the word Nazi is short for national Soicialist, but really they should then be NaSos.

Actually, it is short for Ignaz. If you were called Ignaz in the early 1900s your nickname would have been Nazi.

As the name Ignaz (itself short for Ignatius, actually meaning light) was particularly popular in the Catholkic parts of the Gerrman speaking world, it came to be a synonym for a person from Austria or Bavaria. Typically a Nazi spoke with a strong Bavarain or Austrian accent (the Prussian protestants couldn't tell the difference).

It wasn't necessarily a slur to begin with. There are references to Austrians visiting Berlin saying something like "us Nazis need to stick together".

In the 1920s there were standup comedians in Berlin doing Nazi acts, basically taking the piss out of Austrians and mocking their accent and manner of speech. There were jokes about a Prussian and a Nazi in which the Nazi was invariably the thick and the dumb bringing some misfortune upon himself.

So when a certain Adolf Spicklgruber came onto the scene, born in Austria, living in Bavaria, and calling himself a National Socialist, the intellectuals in Berlin had an easy game calling him a Nazi. And true to the old jokes and jibes, he did bring a great misfortune, not just on himself but on a lot of innocent people too. And after that, nobody used the word in a positive sense again.

Of course nowadays, certain parts of the left call everyone they disagree with a Nazi, forgetting that at its source this is actualy a racist slur against Austrians and Bavarians.

So Hitler was a Nazi, and so was Schwarzenegger, and so is Seehofer.

And this time, for once, it was a Nazi who had the last laugh.

Radical Left just shout-down anyone they disagree with, which isn't helpful to anyone. In fact, they shot themselves in the foot and damaged the Left, because Right-wing parties have now grown tremendously as a result.

It's actually a good thing that the Left are not shouting so much anymore, because this is a serious issue, that needs a serious dialouge and solution, that recognizes and addresses the concerns of both sides. From what I hear, it sounds like the right combination of solutions are being discussed, it's just they are too slow taking action. I mean 3 years after Merkel opened the doors, they are still just "discussing" things But maybe it was only because it took some time for right-wing parties were voted in...

Nuclear policy ?? Grexit crisis ?? Complete about face herself on multiculturalism ??