Angela Merkel’s "Farewell Tour": Immigration Brings Down the German Chancellor

Angela Merkel’s approval rating has dropped twenty points the last year. She has gone from the Time “Person of the Year” to the cause of her party losing votes to the right and the left in recent German state elections. On the campaign trail, Merkel saw protesters and disenchanted crowds, some with signs, such as “Merkel’s Farewell Tour 2016/2017.”

On her far right is Alternative for Germany (AfD), an anti-immigration party on its way to becoming the country’s third most popular. The Social Democrats on the left are beginning to see opportunity, breaking from Merkel’s center-right configuration. Merkel’s center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, watched their position weaken across the board. Her own party candidates are distancing themselves from her immigration policies. In her coalition sister party in the stronghold of Bavaria, an anti-immigration right is growing in its criticism of her immigration welcoming policies.

Merkel represents a German political establishment now in retreat, and although her chancellorship may be safe for now, her future is in doubt. Immigration is as serious a political problem in Europe as America, or to paraphrase John McClane in Die Hard, “Welcome to the Party, Hans.”

"Welcome to the Party, pal"

Photo: YouTube