Nothing that seems to make any sense on the surface or would appear to be what’s commonly known as a ‘next logical step’ follows when you’re talking about the mess that is the German government.
Chancellor Friederich Merz’s shaky coalition has only gotten wobblier in the past few months as Alice Weidel’s Alternativ for Germany (AfD) party constinues to gain in popular support.
After just six months in power, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition is facing infighting, policy deadlock and sliding poll ratings, undermining its efforts to take on the rising far right.
It marks a difficult start for the conservative politician who ran on bold pledges of reviving the stagnant economy, overhauling the threadbare military and toughening immigration policy after years of drift under the previous government.
In German post-war politics, “there has never been such widespread dissatisfaction with a government in such a short period of time,” Manfred Güllner, director of the Forsa polling institute, told AFP.
For Germans who hoped for more decisive leadership after the last government’s collapse, “their expectations have been dashed,”he said.
The winners of February’s general election, Merz’s centre-right CDU/CSU bloc now find themselves neck-and-neck in the polls with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in the poll and is now the largest opposition party.
Merz’s junior coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) of ex-chancellor Olaf Scholz, have seen their popularity slide further after a terrible election performance, and now sit around 13-15% in polls.
The unrelenting consistency of AfD’s message on immigration, and the absolutely horrific waffling from the moment Merz won, reneging on his election promises to begin to do something about restricting the borders and starting deportations, has only worsened with time. This has, of course, increased the friction within the fragile coalition of the left-wing partners, who want something done about the populist AfD and want it done now.
They are nothing without their authoritarian impulses.
This includes, sadly, the German Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat (SPD) who recently indulged his frustration with his own party’s unpopularity and their inability to counter the appeal of the AfD by publicly advocating for banning Weidel’s party from politics completely.
Don’t beat ’em, don’t join ’em, just get rid of them. Naturally, the AfD came unglued, as did people to whom democracy matters.
‘Never has a federal president abused his office so much’ – Germany’s president suggests AfD ban in new speech
In an unusually forceful speech, German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), suggested banning the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. His speech immediately provoked sharp condemnation from the AfD party and even led the prominent Welt newspaper to argue the speech would only bolster support for the AfD.
The AfD immediately took issue with President Steinmeier’s comments concerning the banning of a political party. Bernd Baumann, the AfD parliamentary group’s chief whip, reacted strongly to the president’s remarks, writing:
“Never has a Federal President abused his office so much. He calls for ban proceedings against the AfD, and he wants to prevent any cooperation in any parliament. He places the AfD at the same level as Nazi murderers. Because of such demonization, the Antifa burned the fifth car in front of my house – in just one year, with a call for murder against me.”
There have been numerous violent attacks – firebombings, physical attacks, and the like – against various AfD officials and their homes over the past months, and many saw the president’s speech as a call to action for more of these. His speech was condemned immediately.
…However, it is not only the AfD condemning Steinmeier, who did not directly reference the AfD but obviously alluded to the party in his speech.
As the top story on the influential Welt newspaper website, Fatina Keilani also slammed Steinmeier, casting his calls for a ban as anti-democratic.
“The Federal President wants to defend democracy – and declares war on the AfD without naming it. In doing so, he fails to recognize that a good democrat should defend dissenting opinions, not fight them.
“Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has never given a speech that was truly memorable. On Sunday, however, he delivered a speech that was so disturbingly misguided in places that it sent chills down one’s spine.
Even as the country’s president was throwing verbal firebombs, the chancellor was still negotiating ploys to calm a restive, angry German public, who wanted the immigration crisis attacked from all directions. Merz, already under fire for his inartful comments three weeks ago – that the inner cities ‘had a problem,’ and by that the Left inferred he meant immigrants – is desperately trying to hold a coalition together of fractious left-central partners who are all fervently pro-immigration.
The Socialists are warning that upcoming regional elections could doom the government regardless of what Merz does.
SPD officials warn the German government may fall apart as polls show the AfD hitting record highs and CDU leaders distance themselves from the coalition.
Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) is quietly preparing for the governing coalition to collapse early, according to The Pioneer. At an internal meeting, SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf reportedly warned colleagues of “realistic” scenarios in which the coalition could break and urged the party to become “ready to campaign.” He would not confirm the report, saying only that a party must always be campaign-ready.
In a bid to look as if he was beginning to assert some control over the out-of-control immigration situation, the Chancellor noticed that the war in Syria seemed to have simmered down. Maybe, just schmaybe, the chancellor postulated, there was an opportunity now to send some of these knife-wielding, not very grateful Syrian asylum seekers back home.
What a great plan! He’d be ‘doing something.’
So he sent his foreign minister off to Syria for a site survey and to get the ball rolling.
The chaos of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s lame and unstable coalition is deepening. We may be approaching the end.
First, the acute if lesser crisis: Last week, our listless and morally hypertrophic Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Syria. It should’ve been simple enough; all he had to do was shake some hands and talk about human rights and democracy or whatever. Instead, while touring some bombed-out suburb of Damascus, Wadephul choked up …
… and for no reason at all said there was no way Syrian refugees in Germany could be expected to return to such a place, because “people can hardly live in dignity here.” This was a knife in the back of his Union colleagues, for whom at least the appearance of a tougher stance on migration and an increase in deportations is a matter of political survival. It didn’t help that Wadephul’s words seemed to echo Article 1 of the German Basic Law (on “human dignity”) and may therefore provide fodder for our judiciary to make the repatriation of any Syrian refugees all that much harder.
Wadephul got back to Germany, got called on the carpet for blowing all their plans to hell, and doubled down.
…Instead, Wadephul took the floor and gave an emotional speech … He declared that Syria looked worse than Germany in 1945. He pointed to a cross on the wall and appealed to the Christian view of humanity. He said that he had nothing to take back … He said … “I am not a wimp.”
Merz, who has little hair to pull, had about two spindly strands left after that meeting, having to debunk and argue with ‘I’m not a weeping wimp’ while making his case for depositing a majority of the over one million Syrians now in Germany back where they belong.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul triggers outrage after arguing Syrians cannot return home despite the civil war’s end—handing fresh political momentum to the AfD.https://t.co/BkcLfQPqog
— The European Conservative (@EuroConOfficial) November 5, 2025
Besides, I can’t imagine why anyone wants them gone.
German government data shows 135,000 crimes by Syrian suspects since 2015 — one every 39 minutes
The German government has disclosed that a total of 135,668 crimes have been committed by Syrian suspects between 2015 and 2024, amounting to one every 39 minutes over the past 10 years.
The figures, released by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the AfD, have reignited the party’s demands for tougher migration controls and deportations.
...According to police crime statistics cited by the German publication, the number of Syrian suspects has continued to rise. In 2024, there were 101,265 criminal cases involving Syrians, excluding immigration offenses — up from 94,158 the previous year. The federal interior ministry reported particularly sharp increases in violent and sexual offenses. In 2024, there were 12,512 violent crimes involving Syrian suspects, the highest in 10 years. Cases of rape, sexual coercion, and serious sexual assault rose to 648, more than 60 percent higher than in 2020.
It probably has something to do with defending democracy – of course, I’m just stabbing in the dark here.
Ismail Alhaj Hussein has turned himself into police.
Both illegal migrant aggressors in the Dresden tram attack on the American John Rudat are now in police custody.
They are Syrians who came to Germany illegally in 2022 and 2023. Both are well known to police for wide variety… https://t.co/YMiuJR2puX pic.twitter.com/8RA2YDpj1A— eugyppius (@eugyppius1) September 1, 2025
So Merz played tough guy – he was really left with little choice.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has openly contradicted his foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, over whether Syrian refugees should be sent back. Merz says deportations should begin because the civil war is over, while Wadephul argues returns are only possible to a very limited extent and would violate refugees’ dignity.
Merz said he expects many Syrians to voluntarily return home to assist in rebuilding the country, but added that “those who refuse to return can, of course, be deported.”
War’s over, it’s time for you all to go, and Germany to clean up this Merkel mess.
…In reality, it will be hard for Merz to compel a large share of the roughly one million Syrians living in Germany to leave. But under pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leaders vow to forcibly return Syrian refugees en masse, the chancellor is taking a harder line on Germany’s Syrian population, and says he’ll work with Syria’s president, former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, to do so.
For a fellow whose government is looking as if it’s on borrowed time, the reaction looks a lot like Melon’s face did when she was listening to the ineffectual chancellor at the White House back in August – all eyerolls and hard blinks.
🚨 OMG…the Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni’s reaction is *PRICELESS* as Germany Chancellor Merz is lecturing Trump that he needs to go to a ceasefire with Putin instead of a full peace deal.
She just keeps rolling her eyes 🤣😭 the plan was NOT to do a ceasefire. Trump… pic.twitter.com/9fF72oB0U4
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2025
No one thinks he remotely has the oom-pah to do it or that the government will last long enough to move anyone out.
On November 6, a court in Düsseldorf approved the deportation of two Syrians, and that order is final and cannot be appealed.
I guess it’s a start.
Hope they enjoy it.
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