German Chancellor Angela Merkel said policy makers need to counter populist “lies” spread on social media and that voters who support the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany don’t reflect majority opinion.
“Right now it’s hard to reach some people with reasoning and still we have to keep trying again and again,” Merkel said in an interview with Berlin-based RBB Inforadio broadcast Thursday. “I believe that we shouldn’t give up on people who are now casting a protest vote, but rather keep courting them with our policies.”
Three days before voters in Berlin elect a new city council, the comments were Merkel’s latest signal that she’s sticking to her course on refugee policy as Alternative for Germany, or AfD, captures voters from established parties in state elections across the nation. Polls put the AfD’s support in the capital at 14 percent ahead of Sunday’s ballot. ...
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