Guest article by Otto Hauser - If the CDU celebrates Merkel's birthday today, it must clarify the refugee issue

FOCUS online Guest article by Otto Hauser - If the CDU celebrates Merkel's birthday today, it must clarify the refugee issue Article by Von Focus Magazin-Otto Hauser • 2 hours • 4 minutes reading time Today the CDU is celebrating the 70th birthday of former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Our guest author says: Merkel's refugee policy must be evaluated and politically questioned, because Merkel's "We can do it" from 2015 is empty and meaningless. If migration and refugee policy is now being raised to the fate of the nation, isn't it only natural to ask former Chancellor Angela Merkel whether she is still at peace with herself? It is finally time to evaluate Merkel's refugee policy from 2015 and to politically question it. So far, this has been hinted at by the Union, but never clearly formulated. Voters identify CDU with Merkel's refugee policy Many people still do not vote for the CDU today because they still identify the party with Merkel's refugee policy. I hear many people say when Islamists commit murders and atrocities: "How could something like this happen?" The Union has said goodbye to Merkel's refugee policy in realpolitik terms with Friedrich Merz, but people are waiting for the Union to state clearly and unequivocally: This refugee and migration policy has failed in every respect. A lot of trust in the CDU has been lost, and now it is time to regain it. "We can do it": meaningless and empty The slogan, recited like a mantra by Merkel: "We can do it!" Was meaningless and empty because she never explained how she wanted to do it. This refugee policy is a very special task, "that's why I'm Chancellor, ... to solve this problem, and I have to go my own way," she said in a television interview. We have seen that this path led the Union into the abyss. The fact that there were already warning voices in 2015 was completely ignored. What surprised me even then was that very few stood in its way. Some thought this policy was good, defended it and went along with it. Today, neither Merkel nor them have expressed a word of regret for this failed refugee policy and its consequences. Merkel's actions broke EU law In 1993, we, as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, were able to convince our coalition partner at the time, the FDP, and then the SPD, to amend Article 16 of the Basic Law with a lot of effort and persuasion, followed by the Dublin Agreement with the third-country solution. The result was that the number of refugees fell significantly. With her actions 12 years later, Ms Merkel not only broke EU law, she also destroyed the functioning of the Dublin Agreement with the EU states. "There must be no parties to the right of the CDU and CSU" Furthermore, the Union parties' claim that there must be no parties to the right of the CDU and CSU became meaningless. Franz Josef Strauß was an unconditional advocate of this. Merkel is responsible for the fact that the AfD of 2015, which was little noticed at the time, became a strong party. The AfD became increasingly stronger, to the detriment of the Union. Merkel completely ignored the discontent among the population. She allowed the basic consensus for democracy to be broken down among many people in politics and society because they no longer had faith in the rule of law. Not a word from Merkel about Solingen or Mannheim Many of Merkel's companions who shared responsibility knew that only clear action would get rid of the right-wing and the AfD. In the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, to give one example, the Republicans were represented with 10.9 and 9.1 percent. After the amendment to the Basic Law on asylum, the Republicans were thrown out of the state parliament. The right-wing parties were deprived of the basis for their political activity. Not a word from Ms Merkel about the murders in Solingen, Mannheim and elsewhere. I hope that she at least reflects on this in her biography. If not, posterity will have no added value from what she has written. A clear statement from the CDU on Merkel's would be appropriate Merkel and her colleagues do not seem to have thought about what consequences and effects this policy will have in later years. You cannot talk your way out of it today and say that there were no alternatives and that was just the way things were. The result is a crying shame: an incapable traffic light coalition, a very strong AfD and a CDU that has regained its footing but cannot shape policy in the opposition, can only demand it and is polling between 30 and 34 percent. Because Merkel's migration policy weighs heavily on the Union and many people are still not reconciled with the CDU, there is a lack of more voters.