Angela Merkel Calls for United Europe to Address Migrant Crisis - nytimes

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel moved on Wednesday to get ahead of criticism of her role in the mass migration to Central Europe from the Middle East, taking measures to address opposition at home and urging other leaders to meet what she called “a test of historic dimensions.”

Speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Ms. Merkel pleaded for a united Europe to overcome the migrant crisis. She said the sheer number of migrants “changes Europe’s agenda,” and warned the parliamentary members that global disturbances would affect Europe “whether we like it or not.”

Her appearance, made along with PresidentFrançois Hollande of France, was part of a hastily mounted campaign that included putting her chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, in charge of the crisis at home and making an unusual hourlong evening appearance on German television to explain her policy.

The chancellor, quietly forceful, insisted that she had a plan — however hard it is to predict the flow of migrants — and that, while happy to take suggestions from others, she would not close borders or refuse to accept more new arrivals.

Ms. Merkel has been under increasing criticism for her management of the crisis and her unmitigated support for a migrant flow that has increasingly put her country under strain and had ripple effects through other states along the migrant trail. Critics both within Germany and without warn that limits will soon be reached and that stronger measures have to be taken to address the needs of thousands of asylum-seekers who continue to arrive each day.

Ms. Merkel — who has coined a new motto, ”We can manage,” a kind of German “Yes, we can” — has stuck by what she says is the duty to welcome refugees. - Read More at NYT

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