Hymning her decision last fall to fling open the doors to Germany even more widely, Angela Merkel liked to boast “wir schaffen das!” (“we can do it”), a claim for which there was in reality very little evidence.
And now, bit by bit, Germans are discovering how they will be handling the crisis that their chancellor has done so much to make worse.
The Daily Telegraph is reporting this, for example:
Authorities in the German city of Cologne are to set up a “safe zone” for women during the annual carnival which begins next week, to avoid a repeat of the New Year sex attacks on women. The move comes after it emerged two asylum-seekers from Algeria are being held as suspects in the sex assaults. The Cologne carnival is one of the largest street festivals in Europe, and attracts more than 1m people to its main parade each year. There are concerns the large crowds could leave women vulnerable to the sort of attacks seen on New Year’s Eve, when police were heavily outnumbered. The authorities plan to provide extra street lighting and set up a “safe zone” for women in the city centre, staffed with social workers…
And that’s how it is in Merkel’s Germany
A 'Safe Zone' in Cologne