Angela Merkel: “We can do it” – that’s how she thinks about her sentence today

Ten years after her legendary sentence “We create the” to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees, Germany, according to the then Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), has significantly progressed in the integration of migrants. “This is a process. But so far we have done a lot. And what else has to be done has to be done,” said the CDU politician in an interview with journalist Ingo Zamperoni, which was led to ARD documentary.

On August 31, 2015, Merkel chose the three words after it was known that 800,000 refugees were expected in Germany for the current year and thousands of refugees from Hungary were traveling towards Germany.

Merkel says today: “It was clear to me that this will be something really challenging.” At the same time, it was always surprised “how much these three words” we can “do it around the ears”. She just wanted to express that Germany was faced with a big task. She hoped for the people in the country.

Merkel does not see an excessive demand from Germany through its decision. “I don’t think so. Germany is a strong country,” she said. “Overall, I was convinced that Germany could do that.”

The former Chancellor pointed out that the alternative would have been to prevent the refugee people by force to come to Germany. “I would never have agreed to that,” said Merkel. In retrospect, however, she sometimes blamed that in 2012/13 – when the civil war in Syria was already underway – she no longer had done for the people on site.

Merkel also admitted that her decision contributed to the upswing of the AfD. “This certainly grew the AfD stronger.” But that was no reason not to make a decision that she thinks is right and reasonable. Also, her decision to dispute in the Union, which was not helpful to cope with the large integration task.

CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann drew a critical record ten years after the Merkel set. “6.5 million people have come to us since 2015 and less than half are in the works today. I think that, to say the least, not satisfactory,” said Linnemann of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. Today it is about stopping illegal migration into the social systems and promoting regular immigration to the labor market. “That must be the policy of this government in 2025 – and that is it too.”