Deutschland in den Augen der Anderen / 3

In der chinesischen Global Times heißt es über die Probleme der EU und Deutschlands:

(...) Desperate refugees are looking for safe havens in European countries. Governments and societies are divided on whether this should happen. Some are positively disposed to providing hospitality and jobs, others are skeptical and prefer to close their borders as well as endorse extreme practices. (...)

The recent Paris Statement by some European intellectuals on "A Europe We can Believe In" almost fully connects the future of the EU with the dominance of Christianity. This argument was prevalent more than 10 years ago when potential Turkish EU membership was a likely scenario. Some scholars were then advocating for Islam to have no position in the EU. And now this racist, religious framing is returning to the discourse due to the arrival of numerous people from Africa and the Middle East to Europe.

Turning a blind eye to problems leads nowhere. This is the reality in today's Europe. We saw it in the recent German federal election. A xenophobic right-wing party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), managed to enter Parliament with an impressive 12.6 percent of the vote. For some years, Germany was more immune to far-right parties than most other European countries. But this is no longer the case. Subsequently, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) are toughening their stance on the refugee crisis. They recently decided to limit the number of refugees seeking asylum to the country. Their agreement was opposed by Liberals and the Greens, the two parties that will possibly participate in a new coalition government with the CDU and CSU.  (...)

Young people are expecting Europe to act quickly in order to create better perspectives for the future and mostly it is Berlin that has the key to drastic reforms.
The first signs are not optimistic. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not particularly warmed to Macron's proposals. She also remains allergic to plans for debt mutualization and some new stimulus packages to boost growth. Difficult negotiations ahead of the formation of the new German government have postponed all discussions to 2018 in the best-case scenario. The initial hope for a breakthrough at the EU level by the end of the year was not well-grounded. (...)

"Disoriented Europe slow to find way forward", ist der Beitrag eines Autors mit griechischem Namen überschrieben.