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June 28, 2024 - 11:45am
As the German Greens drop to their lowest polling numbers since 2018, a new scandal is brewing at the country’s Foreign Ministry. According to reports confirmed by the Ministry, which is run by Green politician Annalena Baerbock, the German judiciary is now investigating civil servants for allegedly deliberately accepting forged and incomplete visa documents. Reportedly, German staff at consulates and embassies in countries including Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan were advised to accept fake passports, thereby enabling migrants to legally travel to Germany, despite violating existing rules that require proper documentation.
What was originally treated as a handful of cases could now actually be in the thousands, and the impression that a Green-run ministry has been prioritising ideology over proper legal procedure would further accelerate the party’s voter exodus. Migration is becoming an increasingly salient issue, particularly after a 20-year-old German was brutally beaten to death this week by, police claim, a Syrian migrant who entered the country in 2018.
Of course, the Greens’ support of mass immigration has never been a well-kept secret. Most memorably, the party’s Vice President of the Bundestag Katrin Göring-Eckardt responded to the 2015 migrant wave by saying: “We are being given people as a gift.” Contained within that line is the Greens’ basic attitude towards any kind of immigration, regardless of legality.
Since 2015, however, the German public has sobered up to the downsides of mass migration, and the impact on crime rates especially can no longer be denied. Berlin’s Chief of Police, Barbara Slowik, made this clear in a statement last week in which she acknowledged that the main perpetrators of the city’s spiralling knife crime are “young, male, and of non-German background”.
Although the investigation into forged visa documents is ongoing, the fact that the Foreign Ministry is yet to issue a denial — not to mention Baerbock’s own silence on the matter — is a strong indicator that the authorities are acting on more than a hunch. There have been suggestions in the past that the ministry was bending existing rules to fly in people from Afghanistan, and this is the most substantial charge yet. The accusation amounts to one of Germany’s most important federal ministries engaging in a form of human trafficking: enabling migrants to enter the country under false pretences or with forged documents is a crime prosecutable under existing law.
While this story is still developing, the question Germans are asking is no longer whether the forgeries took place but rather what the extent of the deception was and — crucially — who was involved. It is unlikely that Baerbock gave any such orders herself, but it’s entirely possible that her staff may have acted in accordance with the ideological preconceptions of their boss. The Greens are currently witnessing not just the discrediting of their liberal immigration policies, but also the rapid erosion of their voter base.
Ralph Schoellhammer is assistant professor of International Relations at Webster University, Vienna.
Raphfel
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SubscribeI am going to head over to the BBC news site for all the latest on this. I will get back asap with all the details………
If you come up empty handed maybe try the Guardian. There is sure to be something there.
Germany has completely lost the plot. That’s all there is to it.
And I have no clue how they are going to get things back on an even keel. Especially as regards migration and the violence which these new “gifts” have brought to thank their hosts…I fear that the German state will at some point lose a significant proportion of its credibility and control, with other non-state actors stepping into the vacuum to protect their territory. Watch “The Dogs of Berlin” on Netflix – that’s what I mean.
This is not a question of a wrong liberal immigration policy or electoral base, it is a question of committed crime, and given the simultaneous flow of invaders in EU, UK and the US, we may be talking about a crime committed by a criminal syndicate.
Slightly wider take on this story. I would be very surprised if there had been any direction to allow this fraudulent immigration by a politician. Far more likely in my view is that this was a case of those with the power to allow just to do what they “know” to be the right thing.
Sometimes called institutional capture I think this has become rife across most nations in the group once known as Public Servants. The politicians in notional charge will have little if any knowledge of what actually is going on.
Similar things happen in the UK, far more than is reported. I know of cases around the NHS where the department of health makes the rules which are then totally ignored down the line by various trusts and health authorities, but as far as the DoH is concerned “things have changed”. Similarly in local government and in major government departments. The minister, council leaders, and other supposedly in charge are basically ignored as some Public Servants obviously know better and do their own thing.
Not a majority or probably a even significant proportion but enough employees just ignore what they don’t like. Or do things such as reported here simply because they can without much fear of consequences and because these few simply “know” they are doing “the right thing”.
Yes the Home Office has been captured too. Anyone responsible has to be tried and convicted of people smuggling (for whatever motive) and put behind bars and the individuals who were given visas deported.
Surely the most important question is not what or how or who but why? Why does the state illegally traffic non-Europeans from cultures and nations hostile to Europeans into Europe?
This is the million dollar question. Don’t they have sons and daughters to hand on their lands, culture, language, beliefs?
Oh, but Anywheres can flee such things. Until they can’t. More seriously, their ideology is pseudo-religious. History shows us that people in the grip of religion are perfectly willing to commit suicide. They will doubtless be singing as they metaphorically die.
When Allied POWs were seeking to escape Germany during WW2, they were obliged to forge documents. “Show me your papers” became a trope during many a WW2 escape movie.
Now, it’s just: “Don’t bother showing me your papers, and if they’re fake, it’s just fine.”
Don’t worry. In our brave new world of selectively applied justice, the old rules will still apply to you and I.
“It is unlikely that Baerbock gave any such orders herself”
Unlikely?
Can we please have some backup for this claim? On what is the writer basing the notion that this is ‘unlikely’?
Given the circumstances, I think ‘likely’ not be the more accurate word.
And those mother effers have the gall to wonder why voters are angry – why they are embracing populist parties. They have chased and stroked their luxury beliefs for a decade, making life worse for avg voters, and we’re supposed to believe the real threat are politicians who want to end the madness.
The article says “the German public has sobered up to the downsides of mass migration, and the impact on crime rates especially can no longer be denied”. But it can no longer be stated out loud, either. The AfD’s Marie-Therese Kaiser was fined for pointing out the fact that Afghan migrants commit a disproportionately large number of gang rapes. The fact was not disputed by the prosecution. Ms Kaiser’s crime was to state the fact.
Roderic o Gorman an Irish green party minister sent out a tweet in various languages encouraging refugees to come to Ireland and guaranteed them own door accommodation within 4 months of arrival. This promise was made in the throes of an acute housing shortage, with over 10,000 people homeless in the state as we speak.
This ludicrous promise led to an influx of refugees with no hope of accommodation resulting in 100s of migrants camping on the streets of Dublin.
Eye watering in their stupidity. Why would they think more Muslims would be a good idea? They have been an utter catastrophe for Europe. Mass deportation is the only answer.
I would strongly suspect that something similar has been afoot in the UK’s Border Agency, Immigration policy implementation and staff.
One thing about the Left, they always know better than the people.