German regional elections - big winner was without question the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

German regional elections - big winner was without question the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

The day’s big winner was without question the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The party ran a xenophobic campaign that played on public fears about refugees. It took nearly a quarter of the votes in Saxony-Anhalt, where it finished second. The party, which appeared on the ballot for the first time, won more than 10 percent of the vote in the other two states as well, signaling broad regional opposition to Merkel’s stance on refugees.

All of the established parties took a thrashing in at least one state. The Greens, for example, won Baden-Württemberg but collapsed in Rhineland Palatinate. The Social Democrats held Rhineland Palatinate but slumped in the other two states to historic lows.

But no party was hit harder than Merkel’s CDU, with declining support across the board. The result will have profound political implications for the chancellor both in Germany and Europe.

For years, Germany appeared to be an island in Europe as the only major country without a strong far-right populist movement. Political scientists and columnists debated the degree to which the German anomaly was rooted in the trauma of the country’s 20th century history.

Turns out these voters were always there, they just weren’t voting. In all three states that held elections Sunday, the main source of the AfD’s support was from voters who hadn’t cast a ballot in the last election. It also poached hundreds of thousands of voters from the established parties, in particular, Merkel’s CDU. The AfD’s strong showing reflects deep dissatisfaction in many parts of Germany with the political establishment.

Support for such parties in other countries has proved volatile. While the refugee backlash proved to be a perfect match for the AfD’s anti-foreigner message, support for such parties in other countries has proved volatile.

Nonetheless, that the party managed to capture between 12.5 percent and 24 percent of the vote in its first running in the three states that held elections on Sunday is nothing short of stunning. It suggests that AfD, which has morphed from an anti-euro movement into the kind of right-wing populist party typical across Europe, is here to stay.

The CDU and the CSU, its more conservative Bavarian sister, will likely be tempted to try to recapture the support they’ve lost on their right flank.

So far, those attempts have largely failed, as voters opted for the original. Hmmm......As i predicted months ago ! In my opinion this doesn't mean that all voters of AfD are right extreme , just if their current leadership doesn't act on their grievances they will look for an alternative that will. (Protest votes). Read the full story here.

@HasanSari7 @EjmAlrai predicted Right wing extremism will rise everywhere, if govs don't handle events well, they will look for new leaders

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) November 21, 2015

Merkel's CDU Set for Regional clobbering as Critics Slam Turkey-EU Deal.

Merkel's CDU Set for Regional clobbering as Critics Slam Turkey-EU Deal. (SP).

Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel describing the recently announced EU-Turkey refugee deal as a "breakthrough" towards solving the current crisis, many critics at home remain unconvinced, with Merkel's party tipped for heavy losses in regional elections this weekend.

As critics within the EU parliament scolded the provisional EU deal with Turkey, skeptics in Germany also took aim at the agreement, with the leftist Die Linke party likening the deal to Turkish "blackmail."

On the other side of the political spectrum, the right-wing tabloid newspaper, Bild, was equally critical of the deal, with an online editorial accusing EU leaders of planning to "spend billions to support and even accelerate Turkey's path towards becoming an authoritarian religious state based on violence, just to ensure that the regime there takes the refugees off our hands".

More than 12 million Germans are set to elect regional parliaments in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt, with polls suggesting Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is to be heavily punished for its open-door refugee policy.

In the CDU's traditional stronghold of Baden-Württemberg, a recent poll suggested the party's support had dropped by more than 10 percentage points, placing it second behind the Green Party. While elsewhere, increased support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party was expected to further erode CDU votes.

The elections are seen as a litmus test of public opinion on Merkel's refugee policies, amid rising anger over the chancellor's refusal to place an upper cap on the number of refugees Germany was willing to accept. Read the full story here.

Merkel Under Fire in Legal Threat Over Refugees Numbers From Coalition Partners

When will #Merkel come out and give the numbers she agreed upon with #Erdogan in November? pic.twitter.com/7wOJw9k2dZ

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) February 18, 2016

Merkel Under Fire in Legal Threat Over Refugees Numbers From Coalition Partners. (SP).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who heads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has come under further fire from the sister party in the grand coalition, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), which is threatening legal action over her refugee policy.

At the annual congress of his CSU party Seehofer made the German leader look like "a schoolgirl," according to local media. In a 13-minute tirade, he lambasted Merkel over the handling of the refugee crisis, demanding she set a limit on the number of asylum-seekers the country would accept.

Seehofer has called for a maximum limit of 200,000 refugees to be accepted in 2016.

"From our past experience I can say Germany has no problem with an influx of 100,000 or at most 200,000 asylum seekers and refugees fleeing war. This number is manageable and also allows for integration. Anything more than that I think is too much," he said.

In January, Seehofer said he would send Merkel a written request to restore "orderly conditions" at the nation's borders, through which over a million migrants and refugees passed in 2015. "If it doesn't follow, the state government will have no other choice but to file a suit at the Federal Constitutional Court," Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine.

CSU senior lawmaker Peter Ramsauer has now told Seehofer to quickly submit the threatened action against the refugee policy of the Federal Government to the Federal Constitutional Court.Read the full story here.

Jews and Refugees in Europe.

Jews and Refugees in Europe. PressurePoints. By Elliott Abrams.

Prof. Daniel Byman (of Brookings and Georgetown) wrote recently that

If the refugees are treated as a short-term humanitarian problem rather than as a long-term integration challenge, then we are likely to see this problem worsen.

Radicals will be among those who provide the religious, educational, and social support for the refugees – creating a problem where none existed.

Indeed, the refugees need a comprehensive and long-term package that includes political rights, educational support, and economic assistance as well as immediate humanitarian aid, particularly if they are admitted in large numbers.

If they cannot be integrated into local communities, then they risk perpetuating, or even exacerbating, the tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Europe.

The non-Muslim communities most likely to feel the brunt of those tensions are Jewish communities. German Jewish leaders explained the problem to Chancellor Merkel this week, warning of “widespread anti-Semitism among Muslim youth” in Germany and noting that “Many refugees come from countries where Israel is an enemy; this resentment is often transferred to Jews in general.” There are also reports that Germany’s security agencies have expressed the same warning. Read the full story here.

Video - Bavarian PM Horst Seehofer has given Merkel until Sunday to close 'open door' for refugees.

'Refugees...not Welcome' - A far-right, anti-refugee party has won a landslide victory in Poland.

'Refugees...not Welcome' - A far-right, anti-refugee party has won a landslide victory in Poland. (Thejournal.ie).

POLAND’S CONSERVATIVE LAW and Justice party won a landslide in yesterday’s general election on anti-refugee rhetoric and welfare promises, ending eight years of centrist rule in a victory that risks inflaming tensions with the EU and Russia.

The eurosceptic PiS led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski garnered an outright majority, according to projections from partial results by local television channels, ousting leftist parties from parliament for the first time since the fall of communism in 1989.

“This is the first time in the history of Polish democracy that a single party has scored (an outright) majority” in the Sejm, the lower house, Kaczynski said in a victory speech after Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz conceded defeat.

He also paid tribute to his twin bother, the late president Lech Kaczynski, who died in a 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, western Russia, saying: “Without him, we wouldn’t be here today. His spirit is stronger than his body. We must keep his memory alive.”

His push for power preyed on fears arising from Europe’s worst migrant crisis since World War II and analysts said a PiS government was likely to reverse Kopacz’s decision to accept refugees under an EU quota plan.

Kaczynski claimed refugees were bringing “cholera to the Greek islands, dysentery to Vienna, various types of parasites,” in comments that critics said recalled the Nazi era.

He insists Warsaw should financially support EU efforts to tackle the crisis, but not take in refugees — a view surveys suggest is shared by nearly 60 percent of Poles.

“After eight years in opposition, Kaczynski is making a big comeback,” Warsaw political analyst Eryk Mistewicz told AFP.

Poland has become an east European heavyweight after a quarter century of explosive growth and vastly-improved living standards since the demise of communism.

“Rather than aggressively locking horns with the EU, he will look for ways to extract maximum benefit from it. With Russia, he may also forego confrontation,” he said.

Analysts agree the PiS will still anchor Poland’s security policy in NATO and strong US ties as a buffer against any threat from Russia.

It will seek ways to continue heavy reliance on coal at upcoming global climate talks, and joining the eurozone will remain a distant prospect.

Some warn Kaczynski’s return could relaunch a political dynamic tinged with authoritarian overtones.

“If PiS end up governing alone with an allied president, Poland will become another Hungary,” Polish Academy of Sciences professor Radoslaw Markowski told AFP. Hmmm......As i warned far right will rise all over Europe. Read the full story here.

Video - Drone captures mass refugee movement near Slovenia-Croatia border crossing

EU pushes to end migrant chaos with Balkans 'Borders' plan.

EU pushes to end migrant chaos with Balkans 'Borders' plan. (HD).

The EU pledged on Oct. 26 to help set up 100,000 places in reception centres along the migrant route through the Balkans, in a bid to defuse rising tensions on its eastern frontier over how to deal with the crisis.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the announcement after emergency talks with the heads of 10 EU nations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the leaders of non-EU Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.

"Managing migration flows together is the only way to restore order, to slow down the uncontrolled flow of people. The uncontrolled flow of people must be stopped," Juncker told a press conference in Brussels.

The meeting comes after Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia on Oct. 24 warned they could close their borders to stop them becoming a "buffer zone" for the tens of thousands of people streaming into Europe every day.

"This is one of the greatest litmus tests Europe has ever faced," Merkel told the press conference with Juncker.

Some 3,000 have died making the dangerous Mediterranean sea crossing and, with winter fast approaching, the fear is that more could face the same fate on the land route through the Balkans.

The reception places, to be provided with the help of the United Nations' refugee agency, the UNHCR, will help provide shelter and speed up registration of migrants, Juncker said.

Some 50,000 places will be created across Balkans countries such as Macedonia and Serbia, while the other half will be located in Greece. That includes 30,000 to be made available this year, and another 20,000 will be set up with families or in rental housing subsidised by the UNHCR.

By trying to separate genuine refugees from economic migrants, the centres would also help speed the planned relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers from overstretched Greece and Italy throughout the 28-nation EU.

Juncker issued a statement with 17 proposals, including an undertaking that no country will let migrants through to an adjoining state without first getting their neighbour's agreement.

Turkey, the starting point for most of the migrants, was absent from the meeting but was on leaders' minds, with officials viewing its help as crucial in stemming the influx to Europe.

Ankara has demanded three billion euros ($3.3 billion) a year and visa-free travel for Turks in return for its cooperation.

The 10 leaders from the EU who attended the mini summit were from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. The meeting took place amid a clear split in the EU over how to best handle the crisis. Hmmm.....It won't work with Erdogan using these refugees as a wedge to get in to the EU. Read the full story here.


Related: 807 000 migrants entered EU in first nine months of 2015, U.S. research shows Immigrants cut Native employment.

'Islamist' Turkey announces new wave of 50,000 Syrian refugees to head for Europe.

'Islamist' Turkey announces new wave of 50,000 Syrian refugees to head for Europe. (BG).

A senior government official said Turkey, which is a staunch opponent of Assad and has been incensed by Russia's intervention in support of him, has been expecting new refugee movements because Moscow's air strikes had targeted relatively stable parts of Syria where civilians were sheltering.

Both Kınık and the government official said many would try to smuggle themselves on to Europe, as Turkey? and its European partners struggle to combat people-trafficking networks.

"Our worry is the changing profile of the refugees. Migrants who came to Turkey in the past had the hope of returning and saw Turkey as a temporary home," the official said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"Now it has become a transit location. The final destination is Europe...which is why steps must be taken to restore calm in Syria. There's little point trying to address the symptoms without solving the main problem."

Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it aspires to join, to do more to keep refugees on its soil and help stem the biggest migration movement the continent has seen since World War Two. The EU has proposed financial aid and faster membership for Turkey in the hope of winning its help.

But it is already sheltering more than 2.2 million refugees and while its wants more funding, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Monday Turkey should not be expected to turn itself into a "concentration camp" for refugees. Read the full story here.

#Turkey's @RT_Erdogan tells @eucopresident & @JunckerEU: Imagine if we open the gates and let these people to go to Europe

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 22, 2015

President @RT_Erdogan says he met with @eucopresident & @JunckerEU and all have come to point of saying they are in need of #Turkey

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) October 22, 2015

German police union chief: "Germany must build border fence, rest of EU Will follow suit".

Hungary fences.

German police union chief: "Germany must build border fence, rest of EU Will follow suit". (DW).

German police union chief has called for a fence to be built along the country's border to stem the flow of migrants. Rainer Wendt told the "Welt am Sonntag" newspaper that other countries would then follow suit.

 He said the move would trigger a chain reaction in other European countries, which have seen hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and elsewhere flood over their borders.
"If we close our borders in this way, Austria will also close the border with Slovenia. That's exactly the effect we need," Wendt, the chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), is quoted as saying.

In a warning to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Wendt said Germany was facing "social unrest" due to the large number of migrants entering the country.

"Our internal (law and) order is at risk...Someone needs to pull the emergency brake now," he cautioned. Hmmmm........As i warned the right will rise, all over Europe, "Deutschland magst ruhig sein'' Read the full story here.

German intelligence closely monitoring anti-Islam movements.

German intelligence closely monitoring anti-Islam movements. (ET).

BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is closely monitoring anti-Islam movements like PEGIDA following a march last week in which demonstrators held up a mock gallows with a noose marked for Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for the interior ministry said.

“The parading around of this gallows last week is a clear example that the baiting, the aggressive potential of this movement is growing,” the spokesman told a regular government news conference. “This development is being watched very closely by domestic intelligence authorities, both at the federal and state level.”

PEGIDA is scheduled to hold a rally in Dresden on Monday night which will mark the one-year anniversary of its marches there. Several thousand took part in a rally last week at which a marcher held up mock gallows with the names of Merkel and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on them.

Merkel's CSU allies oppose speeding up Turkish EU bid for migrant help

Merkel's Bavarian allies oppose speeding up Turkish EU bid for migrant help. (BG).

Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards refugees and embrace of Turkey drew criticism on Monday from conservative allies, with one senior Bavarian politician warning against any consideration of European Union membership for Ankara.

Germany is a favored destination for refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa and expects 800,000 to a million new arrivals this year. Many Germans feel the country cannot cope with the record influx.

Under pressure within her own party to take a harder line on refugees, Merkel sees Turkey's role as key in helping to manage the influx, which has chipped away at popular support for her conservatives.

But her offer to help push forward Ankara's protracted EU membership talks was met with misgivings by some conservative lawmakers on Monday.

"We shouldn't make too many concessions to Turkey: joining the EU is not on the agenda," Gerda Hasselfeldt, a senior member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), told Die Welt newspaper.

"An accession of Turkey to the EU is out of the question for me," Stephan Mayer, a fellow CSU lawmaker told the same paper.

Last week, Merkel faced calls from some of her own conservatives to tighten Germany's border controls and turn away refugees arriving from Austria -- pressure she has resisted.

But opposition to her handling of the crisis continues to grow, with a group of conservative politicians working on proposals to close the borders and put up fences, daily Bild reported on Monday.

"We need to stop the wave of refugees. Examining whether to fortify the borders should not be taboo," CDU lawmaker Christian von Stetten told the paper.

Von Stetten said he was convinced the government had an "effective plan" to deal with the influx of refugees, but added the CDU/CSU parliamentary group would have to react if it turned out in the next few weeks that this assumption was false.

Last week, German lawmakers approved measures to tackle the crisis, including speeding up asylum and deportation procedures and reducing incentives for economic migrants to come to Germany.

807 000 migrants entered EU in first nine months of 2015, U.S. research shows Immigrants cut Native employment.

807 000 migrants entered EU in first nine months of 2015.(Frontex).

The total number of migrants who crossed the EU’s external borders in the first nine months of this year rose to more than 710 000 with the Greek islands on the Aegean continuing to be the most affected by the unprecedented inflow of people. This compares with 282 000 recorded in all of last year.

In the month of September, the number of detections at EU’s external borders stood at 170 000 last month compared to 190 000 recorded in August.

The Greek islands, especially Lesbos, continued to face a massive migratory pressure, with the number of detections in the January-September period reaching 350 000. In September, the number of people detected in the Eastern Mediterranean region was mostly flat at nearly 49 000. Syrian refugees remained the dominant nationality among the arriving migrants.

The massive numbers of migrants coming to the Greek islands continue to have a direct knock-on effect on the Western Balkan route, where Hungary reported more than 204 000 detections at its borders - 13 times higher than in the same period of 2014. An estimated 97 000 people, not yet included in the official figures, also entered the EU through Croatia in the second half of September after Hungary sealed its border with Serbia.Hmmm.....EU filling up with cheap labor forces, but what about the domestic labor force? Read the full story here.

RELATED:

All Employment Growth Since 2000 in the U.S. Went to Immigrants - Number of U.S.-born not working grew by 17 million.

Government data show that since 2000 all of the net gain in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). This is remarkable given that native-born Americans accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the total working-age population.

Though there has been some recovery from the Great Recession, there were still fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level.

All of the net increase in employment went to immigrants in the last 14 years partly because, even before the Great Recession, immigrants were gaining a disproportionate share of jobs relative to their share of population growth. In addition, natives' losses were somewhat greater during the recession and immigrants have recovered more quickly from it.

With 58 million working-age natives not working, the Schumer-Rubio bill (S.744) and similar House measures that would substantially increase the number of foreign workers allowed in the country seem out of touch with the realities of the U.S. labor market.

Three conclusions can be drawn from this analysis:

• First, the long-term decline in the employment for natives across age and education levels is a clear indication that there is no general labor shortage, which is a primary justification for the large increases in immigration (skilled and unskilled) in the Schumer-Rubio bill and similar House proposals.

• Second, the decline in work among the native-born over the last 14 years of high immigration is consistent with research showing that immigration reduces employment for natives.

• Third, the trends since 2000 challenge the argument that immigration on balance increases job opportunities for natives. Over 17 million immigrants arrived in the country in the last 14 years, yet native employment has deteriorated significantly. Read the full study here.

"CHANGE" - Under Obama, Youth Misery Index Hits All-Time High.

"CHANGE" - Under Obama, Youth Misery Index Hits All-Time High.(College Fix).

A Youth Misery Index that measures young Americans’ woes has skyrocketed under President Barack Obama and hit an all-time high.

The index, released Wednesday, was calculated by adding youth unemployment and average college loan debt figures with each person’s share of the national debt. While it has steadily grown over the decades, under Obama the figure has shot up dramatically, from 83.5 in 2009 to 98.6 in 2013.

The index has increased by 18.1 percent since Obama took office, the highest increase under any president, making Obama the worst president for youth economic opportunity, according to the nonprofit that released the figure.

“Young people are suffering under this economy,” said Ashley Pratte, program officer for Young America’s Foundation, which developed the index and calculates it annually using federal statistics. “They’re still living in their parent’s basements, unable to find full-time jobs that pay them what they need in order to pay back their debt.”

Youth unemployment in 2013 was 16.3 percent, and student loan debt came in at a record-breaking average of $29,400 last year, the foundation points out; what’s more, each person’s share of the roughly $17 trillion dollar national debt stands at its highest level ever: $52,948.Read the full story here.