The newly formed German government is about to break apart over the refugee question.  Chancellor Merkel, head of the conservative CDU, is under attack by its sister party, the Bavarian CSU, which is going into state elections and eager to see her head roll. Today saw a tense debate postpone the ultimate decision making process by two weeks, until after the European head of states meet by the end of June.

There is, however, no solution in sight. An increasing number of countries simply refuse to accept refuges despite the previous Dublin accord; Merkel will have to beg individual countries to allow repatriation of incoming immigrants, but has no power to make them agree to this. The Bavarian politicians are simply waiting to close their own borders.

The more progressive parties call the CSU’s approach black mail on the backs of suffering people and wonder if its willingness to push the EU asylum policies in the direction of Victor Orban (Hungary) and Sebastian Kurtz (Austria)   portends the next step of cooperating with the Neonazi German Right. They have threatened to boycott decisions that are unacceptable to them.

The attached article below draws interesting parallels to another historical era where Jews took the place of today’s Muslims as the object of fear mongering. Equally important, it draws out the consequences of a parallel development to xenophobia: namely the patriarchal fears of being on the losing side of history. Misogyny might have contributed to our very own recent election outcome ( speaking of which: Trump this morning inserted himself via tweet in the German debate, claiming yet another lie that recent immigration has increase crime. German media immediately called up the facts.) It certainly rears its ugly head in the form of those involuntary celibates (Incels) who claim to have the right to be satisfied and seek dominance over women. All couched in terms of protecting them against the sexual savages of other creeds and races….

(It says page can’t be found, but if you click on Fortress Europe it does appear…)

Fortress Europe