Is Merkel To Blame For The Failure Of Europe?

The European Union just closed a deal on migration after 12 hours of negotiation in Brussels. Regardless of the vague outcome – voluntary creation of closed reception centers for migrants within the EU, the end of the quota system, etc. –, the talks were crucial and even dubbed "the mother of all summits".

Some said it was because the very survival of the EU was at stake this time. But more than Europe's it was Angela Merkel's political future that was hanging by a thread.

The German Chancellor arrived in Brussels after an ultimatum from her Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, and the rest of his regional, ultra-conservative CSU party. The Bavarian allies of Merkel's CDU wish for tougher immigration policies—in particular, they want to be able to turn away at the German border any asylum applicant already registered in another EU country.

Merkel rejects the idea and demands a solution negotiated at EU level. The Bavarian conservatives gave her until Monday to deliver; therefore this summit was a make or break for Merkel.

The Chancellor insists on finding a European solution for the so-called 'migration crisis' (in fact the number of arrivals has plummeted since 2015). Otherwise, she says, it'd be the end of the European project. 

However, some analysts claim it's actually her policies, from the euro debt crisis to her stances on migration, that are pulling apart the EU. That is the idea Matthew Karnitschnig, Chief Europe Correspondent of Politico (a media company owned by the very powerful German publisher Axel Springer), brings up in this article.

Of course, the way Germany behaved during the financial crisis did little to bring together north and south European countries, especially because Germany made more than €1.3 billion only on Greece's debt crisis.

But blaming the Chancellor for destroying a project that is (theoretically) based on solidarity and human rights – as the EU is – by taking in around one million refugees seems more difficult to defend.