The Isolated Germany Story

For several months,Germans have sat and pondered upon this significant issue of mass immigration and hundreds of thousands of refugees.....and why other European countries don't seem to be as "German-thrilled" about doing their part in the big crusade.

Well, this weekend, for some odd reason....ARD sat down, did the analysis, and told the story.  There are several pieces to it.

First, four years ago when the Lampedusa episode occurred and Italy asked for significant help in the boat refugees....Germany didn't really extend a big hand.  It was a mixed reaction because the Germans kept wondering if helping wouldn't create a bigger wave of refugees.  But the Italians saw the German lack of help.....as being a sign.

Then you toss on the Hungarian comment that came up a couple of months ago....where their leadership saw the refugee issue being a German problem....NOT a EU problem.

Toss on the border perception being 'open', which makes the public of any country in Europe a bit hostile.

Then you come to 2015's episode with Greece and how Germany strong-armed a number of countries to go the tough route with Greece.

All of this adds up to a feeling that Germany is a bit too big for the job and unable to comprehend the nature of the rest of Europe.

Why bring this up now?  That's the curious thing about ARD's long-winded and though analysis.  This wasn't a twenty-liner report....it went on for roughly three pages of material.

I suspect that ARD has come to view the change in the government's policy in the past week as a major change.  They need some way of explaining this to the public.  Admitting that a vast chunk of European society isn't in agreement with them?  Well, it's a bit shocking because for weeks and weeks....Germans have been told by the same ARD crowd that various cultures were in agreement with them.  So, there's a two-sided story here told by ARD.

In the end, Germany has played out a game of poker with the members of the EU and basically lost.  They never could convince anyone of this being a great strategy....other than Germans themselves.