Tag Archives: Germany

German official calls for U.N. sanctions against Syria

A boy rides a bicycle near rubble of damaged buildings in the rebel held al-Maadi district of Aleppo, Syria,

BERLIN (Reuters) – Gernot Erler, the German government’s point man on Russia, urged the United Nations on Thursday to seek sanctions against Syria for two chlorine gas attacks on civilians, despite Moscow’s threat to veto such a measure.

“The United Nations should prepare clear sanctions, despite the Russian veto threat,” Erler told Germany’s Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung in an interview.

“Moscow is obviously more concerned about being seen as a friend of the criminal Assad regime than in taking joint action and sanctions against this provocative treaty violation,” Erler, a member of the Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition, told the newspaper.

An inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), unanimously authorized by the 15-member Security Council, also found that Islamic State militants used sulfur mustard gas.

“The findings are clear,” Erler said. He added that Russia needed to decide if it wanted to risk international isolation in this case.

Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war with rebels fighting to topple him, and China have previously protected the Damascus government from Council action by blocking several resolutions, including a bid to refer the conflict in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

The Security Council on Tuesday began to discuss whether to impose sanctions on people or entities linked to two chlorine gas attacks on civilians that the United Nations and the global chemical weapons watchdog blamed on the Syrian government.

The report’s results have set the stage for a Security Council showdown between the five veto-wielding powers, likely pitting Russia and China against the United States, Britain and France over how to respond.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he is prepared to work with the United States on a response, but that first the council members must exchange analyses of the report, which he described as very complicated.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington. The Security Council passed a resolution that said in the event of non-compliance, including “the use of chemical weapons by anyone” in Syria, it would impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which deals with sanctions.

The Security Council would need to adopt another resolution to impose targeted sanctions – a travel ban and asset freeze – on people or entities linked to the attacks.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Migrant influx pushes German population growth to highest since 1992

A woman wears an Islamic headdress while visiting Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germ

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s population registered its biggest increase in more than 20 years in 2015, data showed on Friday, as record numbers of migrants entered the country.

More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and beyond flocked to Europe’s most populous nation last year, drawn by Germany’s strong economy, relatively liberal asylum laws and generous system of benefits.

Net migration reached a record high of 1,139,000, more than doubling from 2014, the Federal Statistics Office said.

A domestic debate about the benefits and drawbacks of migration has been raised a notch by a recent spate of violent attacks on civilians, some of which were claimed by Islamist militants.

Federal elections are due next year and some German politicians have argued the influx will help ease a shortage of skilled labour as the population ages and birth rates fall.

Others are worried such a large number of migrants, many of whom lack the language skills and training Germany needs, is placing a heavy burden on the social safety net.

With 188,000 more people having died in Germany in 2015 than were born, overall the population rose by 978,000 to 82.2 million, its strongest rise since 1992.

The Interior Ministry has said 1.1 million migrants arrived in Germany last year with the aim of seeking asylum, with just under 480,000 applying. Asylum seekers have faced delays in making their applications.

The statistics office said the figures it used to calculate net migration were based on numbers registering at registration offices. Asylum seekers are initially housed in reception centres and generally only register later.

All of Germany’s 16 regions saw their populations increase. Asylum seekers are spread around the country based on each state’s population and tax revenues.

At the end of 2015 there were 8.7 million foreign nationals living in Germany, an increase of 14.7 percent compared with the previous year, with foreigners making up 10.5 percent of the population.

The IAB German labour office research institute estimated on Friday that the number of people who come to Germany in search of protection would fall to around 300,000 to 400,000 this year.

It said that estimate was dependent on the continued existence of the European Union’s migrant deal with Turkey, which aims to stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe, and the Balkan route remaining closed.

The IAB said the number of new arrivals had stabilised at about 16,000 refugees per month since April. That compares with more than 200,000 in November.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; additional reporting by Holger Hansen; editing by John Stonestreet and Dominic Evans)

Germany to tell people to stockpile food and water in case of attacks

Police barrier is pictured at the train station in Grafing

BERLIN (Reuters) – For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday.

Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month. Berlin announced measures earlier this month to spend considerably more on its police and security forces and to create a special unit to counter cyber crime and terrorism.

“The population will be obliged to hold an individual supply of food for ten days,” the newspaper quoted the government’s “Concept for Civil Defence” – which has been prepared by the Interior Ministry – as saying.

The paper said a parliamentary committee had originally commissioned the civil defense strategy in 2012.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the plan would be discussed by the cabinet on Wednesday and presented by the minister that afternoon. He declined to give any details on the content.

People will be required to stockpile enough drinking water to last for five days, according to the plan, the paper said.

The 69-page report does not see an attack on Germany’s territory, which would require a conventional style of national defense, as likely.

However, the precautionary measures demand that people “prepare appropriately for a development that could threaten our existence and cannot be categorically ruled out in the future,” the paper cited the report as saying.

It also mentions the necessity of a reliable alarm system, better structural protection of buildings and more capacity in the health system, the paper said.

A further priority should be more support of the armed forces by civilians, it added.

Germany’s Defence Minister said earlier this month the country lay in the “crosshairs of terrorism” and pressed for plans for the military to train more closely with police in preparing for potential large-scale militant attacks.

(Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Andrew Bolton)

German conservatives call for partial ban on face veil

A carnival float with papier-mache figures representing women dressed with Burkas, is pictured during the traditional Rose Monday carnival parade in the western German city of Duesseldorf

By Caroline Copley and Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have agreed that women should be banned from wearing the face veil in schools and universities and while driving, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Friday.

The move follows an influx last year of more than 1 million, mainly Muslim, refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and growing security fears among the public after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager.

Regional interior ministers belonging to Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Christian Social Union (CSU) allies presented a declaration in Berlin on tougher security measures, including more police and greater surveillance in public areas.

Among the more disputed proposals is a call for a partial ban on the burqa and niqab garments. Lorenz Caffier, interior minister for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said the full body veil is a barrier to integration, encourages parallel societies and suggests women are inferior.

“We all reject the full veil – not only the burqa but also other types of full veil that only leave the eyes visible … It has no place in our society,” de Maiziere told reporters.

“Baring one’s face is essential for our communication, co-existence and social cohesion and that’s why we’re asking everyone to show their faces. We want to introduce a law to make people show their faces and that means that those who breach that law will have to feel the consequences.”

The conservative interior ministers want to ensure women show their face while driving, when they register with authorities, at passport controls and at demonstrations. They also want civil servants, teachers, students at schools and universities, judges and witnesses in court to be banned from wearing the full veil.

CENTRE-LEFT COALITION PARTNER OPPOSES MOVE

De Maiziere said that the regional interior ministers’ declaration sent a signal that the full veil was not wanted in Germany, although it was not possible to fully ban everything that was undesirable.

The CDU proposals must be adopted by the government before they can become law. The debate over a ban on the face veil has divided Merkel’s ruling coalition; her Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners largely oppose the demands.

The CDU’s calls for a partial ban come as it has lost support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which says Islam is incompatible with the constitution and wants to ban the burqa and minarets on mosques. The AfD is expected to perform well in regional elections in Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in September.

SPD Labour Minister Andrea Nahles has said the calls were a sign of an “increasingly xenophobic” political discourse in Germany and could be a serious setback to efforts to integrate immigrants. Justice Minister Heiko Mass, also from the SPD, said debates about the burqa and security should be kept separate.

Germany has nearly four million Muslims, about five percent of the total population.

There are no official statistics on the number of women wearing a burqa – which covers the face and body – in Germany but Aiman Mazyek, leader of its Central Council of Muslims, has said hardly any women wear it.

A study carried out by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in 2009 found that more than two-thirds of Muslim women in Germany did not even wear a headscarf. The niqab covers the hair and face except for the eyes.

Public debate about a ban on full body veils has broken out in several European countries since three French Mediterranean cities banned body-covering Muslim burkini swimwear, saying the burkini defies French laws on secularism.

France, which has the largest Muslim minority in Europe, estimated at 5 million, has banned the wearing of the niqab and burqa in public since 2010.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Munich raises security for beer festival after Islamist attacks

German Police Officers

BERLIN (Reuters) – Organizers of the world’s biggest beer festival, Munich’s Oktoberfest, have raised security after Islamist attacks in Germany last month, including banning rucksacks, introducing security checks at all entrances and erecting fencing.

Drawing some 6 million tourists, the Oktoberfest is a major highlight of the year for residents, who often wear traditional lederhosen or dirndls, and visitors from all over the world travel there. This year’s festival runs from Sept. 17 to Oct. 3.

However, Bavarians are on edge after jihadist militant group Islamic State claimed two attacks in July, one on a train near Wuerzburg and one at a music festival in Ansbach, in which asylum-seekers injured 20 people.

On top of that, an 18-year-old German-Iranian killed nine people in a shooting rampage in a shopping center in Munich.

“We want to do everything we can in terms of security so that the people of Munich and their guests can revel in a relaxed way. We looked at all options,” deputy Munich mayor Josef Schmid told reporters.

The city has increased the number of stewards to as many as 450 from 250 last year and erected a two-meter high metal fence around Theresienwiese, the open ground where the Oktoberfest is held, to ensure nobody can avoid the checks, he said.

The main Munich breweries have their own tents with long beer tables and bands. Last year they served 7.3 million liters of beer, as well as huge quantities of sausages, bretzel and whole spit-roasted bulls.

The Oktoberfest has its origins in the wedding in 1810 of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The public festivities went on for five days and were so popular they have been repeated annually.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Tiny German bank breaks taboo by charging rich clients for deposits

Raiffeisenbank Gmund

By Alexander Hübner

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A small cooperative bank in the Bavarian Alps is breaking a German taboo by charging wealthy clients to deposit their money following the European Central Bank’s shift to negative rates.

Raiffeisenbank Gmund on the idyllic Tegernsee lake, home of wealthy actors and sports stars, will apply a custody charge of 0.4 percent to sight deposit accounts over 100,000 euros ($111,500.00) from September, a board member told Reuters. Such accounts allow depositors to withdraw their money at any time.

Several German banks have passed on the ECB’s negative deposit rate to large commercial customers such as companies and institutional investors, but applying the charge to retail customers has been seen as a step too far.

“We have written to all large depositors and recommended that they think things over. If you don’t create an incentive to change things then things don’t change,” Josef Paul said.

Cooperative direct bank Skatbank has applied negative rates on deposits over 500,000 euros since 2014, while ecological lender GLS bank, also part of the cooperative system, is asking customers for a “solidarity contribution” to help offset negative interest rates.

LAST RESORT

The ECB has resorted to a negative deposit rate to try to encourage banks to lend to stimulate Europe’s economy, which is still suffering from the after-effects of the financial crisis. Banks, meanwhile, are seeking to encourage depositors to shift their cash out deposit accounts into other financial products.

Germany’s cooperative banking association BVR said it did not expect other deposit takers in its network to follow Raiffeisenbank Gmund’s lead.

“We don’t believe retail banking will see widespread application of negative rates in Germany, not least because of the intense competitive situation in the German banking market,” the BVR said.

Even in Gmund, the lion’s share of customers are not affected. Paul’s cooperative bank wrote to less than 140 clients, who together hold 40 million euros in deposits, about the new charge, which has already proved effective.

“Some of the customers we informed have opted for alternative investments and others moved their money to other banks,” Paul said, adding that a widening of the charge to less wealthy customers is not planned.

Raiffeisenbank Gmund is one of the country’s smaller cooperative lenders, with six branches and total assets of just 145 million euros. It has a substantial overhang of deposits, only part of which it manages to recycle as loans.

Bavaria’s GVB cooperative banking association, with 269 member banks, backed Gmund’s position.

“The ECB’s extreme monetary policy is creating considerable costs for all banks,” a GVB spokesman said.

“As a last resort, they also have to look at a means to be reimbursed for the cost of deposits,” he said.

(Writing by Jonathan Gould; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Germany has curbed open-door policy for migrants

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a news conference in Berlin, Germany

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany appears to have drastically curtailed its open-door policy for migrants in 2016, turning away 13,000 people without valid documentation in the first six months, already 4,000 more than in the whole of 2015, official data showed on Tuesday.

Around 117,500 migrants were admitted in the same period, compared to a record of more than one million migrants entering the country last year, mainly across the border from Austria.

The bulk of the rejections happened at land entry points and Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis made up the three largest groups of the total, the Interior Ministry data published at the request of the hard-left Die Linke party showed.

Chancellor Angela Merkel last month interrupted her summer break to defend her government’s migration policy after two Islamist attacks by asylum seekers, saying that those fleeing conflicts and persecution have the right to asylum in Germany.

More than 2,500 Afghans, 1,300 Syrians and 1,000 Iraqis were declined entry at border crossings in the January-June period, the ministry said. Iranians, Moroccans, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Gambians, Somalis and Algerians made up the rest of the top 10.

The number of people seeking asylum in Germany dropped drastically this year as a result of border closures in the Balkans, an EU-Turkey deal to stop sea arrivals in Greece and tougher asylum rules in Germany.

In July, 4,500 migrants arrived in Germany, less than half of the daily arrivals at the peak of the crisis in the fall of last year, German police said earlier this month, bringing the number of arrivals in the first seven months of the year to 122,000.

Migrants who arrive in Germany are first registered at reception centres where they have to wait for months before they can officially file an asylum application, creating a huge backlog and putting strain on civil servants.

The influx has dented the popularity of Merkel’s ruling conservatives and prompted the rise of an anti-immigration party.

Turkey has threatened to suspend its migrants agreement with the European Union if there is no deal to grant visa-free travel to Turks. The number of migrants reach Italy in boats from Libya has also been rising.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Support for Germany’s Merkel plunges after attacks

German Chancellor Merkel leaves a news conference in Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) – Popular support for Chancellor Angela Merkel has plunged according to a poll conducted after attacks in Germany, with almost two-thirds of Germans unhappy with her refugee policy.

The survey for public broadcaster ARD showed support for Merkel down 12 points from her July rating to 47 percent. This marked her second-lowest score since she was re-elected in 2013. In April last year, before the migrant crisis erupted she enjoyed backing of 75 percent.

Merkel’s open-door refugee policy has come under attack from critics after five attacks in Germany since July 18 have left 15 people dead, including four assailants, and dozens injured.

Two of the attackers had links to Islamist militancy, officials say.

Support for one of Merkel’s fiercest critics, Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer, who has called for restrictions on immigration to increase security, jumped 11 points to 44 percent.

Over a million migrants have entered Germany in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Merkel repeated her claim that Germany could manage to successfully integrate the influx of refugees last week and vowed not to change her refugee policy.

In a poll of 1,003 people conducted Aug. 1-2, just 34 percent of people said they were satisfied or very satisfied with Merkel’s refugee policy. This was the lowest level since the question was first asked last October.

Some 65 percent were dissatisfied with the policy.

The next test of support for Merkel will be state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sept. 4, where her Christian Democrats (CDU) are expected to face a strong challenge from the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

A separate poll this week showed that most Germans do not blame the government’s liberal refugee policy for the two Islamist attacks last month.

(Reporting by Caroline Copley)

Merkel cuts short holiday to face refugee policy storm

German Chancellor Merkel addresses a news conference in Berlin

By Paul Carrel

BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel interrupted her vacation on Thursday to face down accusations at home and abroad that her open-door refugee policy allowed Islamist terrorism to take hold in Germany.

Merkel returns to Berlin to hold a news conference at 12 p.m. (07:00 a.m. EDT) after a spate of attacks since July 18 left 15 people dead – including four attackers – and dozens injured.

Two assailants, a Syrian asylum seeker and a refugee from either Pakistan or Afghanistan, had links to Islamist militancy, officials say.

The attacks have burst any illusions in Germany that the country is immune to attacks like those claimed by Islamic State in neighboring France.

Politicians from left and right say Merkel’s refugee policy is at fault, after more than a million migrants entered Germany in the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

“All our predictions have been proven right,” Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s state premier and a long-standing critic of Merkel’s open-door refugee policy, said on Tuesday. “Islamist terrorism has arrived in Germany.”

Seehofer demanded that Merkel’s government adopt tougher security measures and tighter immigration policies.

Merkel has been on holiday in northern Germany since chairing a security meeting on Saturday, leaving Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere – who twice returned from vacation in the last 10 days – to present the government’s response.

Unlike French President Francois Hollande, who on Tuesday visited Normandy where two assailants killed a priest, Merkel has not been to the scene of any of the attacks in Germany – an absence that has raised questions about her leadership.

“How big will the pressure on Merkel be?” asked mass-selling daily Bild. Business daily Handelsblatt said: “Above all, the new situation puts the chancellor in a difficult position.”

Merkel’s popularity, already eroded by the refugee crisis, is likely to suffer again after a temporary boost following Britain’s vote last month to leave the European Union.

After a 27-year-old Syrian with Islamist ties blew himself up in the town of Ansbach on Sunday, Sahra Wagenknecht of the far-left Linke party criticized as “flippant” Merkel’s mantra of “Wir schaffen das”, or “We can do this,” for handling the influx.

“The events of recent days show that the admission and integration of a large number of refugees and migrants is associated with many problems,” Wagenknecht said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Germany bomber influenced in chat by unknown person

Police secure the area after an explosion in Ansbach, Germany,

BERLIN (Reuters) – A Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up in the southern German town of Ansbach on Sunday was influenced by an unknown person in a chat conversation on his mobile phone, Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Wednesday.

“It’s possible to deduce that another person wherever they were at the time of the call, of the chat, significantly influenced how the attacker acted,” Herrmann said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Bavarian cabinet.

“The chat ended directly before the attack,” he added.

The 27-year-old Syrian, who had arrived in Germany two years ago, set off explosives in his rucksack on Sunday outside a musical festival in Ansbach, a town of 40,000 people southwest of Nuremberg, killing himself and injuring 15 people.

Police are trying to find out whether the attacker had help making the bomb and whether it exploded prematurely, which could suggest he wanted to kill as many people as possible.

“There are indications that the attacker did not want to ignite the bomb at this moment,” a spokesman for the Bavarian Interior Ministry said.

The attack on Sunday was the fourth act of violence by men of Middle Eastern or Asian origin against German civilians in a week and is likely to fuel growing unease about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy.

More than a million migrants entered Germany over the past year, many fleeing war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Investigators found a video on the Ansbach bomber’s mobile phone in which he pledged allegiance to militant group Islamic State, which later claimed responsibility for the bombing.

On searching his room, Nuremberg police found diesel, hydrochloric acid, alcohol, batteries, paint thinner and pebbles — the same materials used in the bomb — and computer images and film clips linked to Islamic State.

(Reporting by Reuters TV and Joern Poltz; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Catherine Evans)