Angela Merkel on Monday admitted she would turn back the clock, if she could, on her refugee policy after her Christian Democrat party suffered a historic defeat in the Berlin regional elections.
As she made a rare public expression of regret over her most contentious policy, the chancellor abandoned the calm self-confidence she has radiated since extending a fateful welcome last summer to thousands of mainly Middle Eastern refugees.
“If I could, I would rewind time by many, many years so that I could better prepare myself and the whole government and all those in positions of responsibility for the situation that caught us unprepared in the late summer of 2015,” Ms Merkel said.
The chancellor also distanced herself from her phrase — “Wir schaffen das — we can do it” — which captured Germans’ belief last summer in their capacity to integrate the newly arrived refugees. She said it had become “a simple slogan, almost an empty formula” that underestimated the scale of the integration challenge. ...
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