German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on March 30, and immediately coming out of that meeting, at a joint press conference, Merz said that a significant number of Syrian refugees who’ve made a home in Germany will be repatriated to Syria.
How many are we talking, exactly? Try 80% of the Syrians in Deutschland, or 700,000 to 800,000. That’s how many Syrian immigrants will be returned to Syria from Germany over the next three years.
Merz is now trying to repatriate 80% of the 900,000 Syrians in an attempt to fix the migrant crisis that Merkel unleashed upon Europe, which has permanently altered European civilization. pic.twitter.com/z6pG2MguR2
— Martin A. Armstrong (@ArmstrongEcon) March 30, 2026
The migrant issue that Merz inherited from his predecessor, Angela Merkel, is something that’s required a good deal of his focus throughout his term. While it appears Merz has made progress in his talks with al-Sharaa, he may face a tougher sell when he tries to convince those Syrian migrants to return home. It seems they’re quite comfortable in Germany.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says 80% of the 900,000 Syrians in Germany should return home within the next 3 years to help rebuild Syria.
Well integrated Syrians who want to stay and have valid rights can remain. Priority on those without permits or who committed crimes.… pic.twitter.com/WVCkA7DUui
— @AdegokeHQ (@SirLordsonHQ) March 31, 2026
According to Reuters, “Merz’s coalition government imposed tougher controls when it took power last year, as support for the anti-immigration AfD party surged in the wake of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to admit around 1 million asylum seekers from countries including Syria and Afghanistan.”
If you’re to believe al-Sharaa, he feels Syria needs those migrants to return home so that, after “years of destruction of businesses, schools, nurseries and hospitals,” his country will have those able-bodied young men to rebuild.
Needless to say, as we’ve seen in America with the way the news media and the left have greeted President Donald Trump’s border enforcement policies, Merz is facing some fierce resistance.
A news site called Infomigrants has reported that the attacks on Merz on this topic are coming from all angles.
Roderich Kiesewetter of the CDU (Christian Democrats), which is Merz’s own political party, told the national German Handelsblatt news site that Merz made a politically “unwise” decision to get out ahead on this issue and make such statements if he can’t deliver when all is said and done.
If Merz fails, Kiesewetter said, other parties, like the Alternative for Germany (AfD), will likely take advantage.
Anke Rehlinger is from Germany’s Social Democrat (SPD) party and is premier of Germany’s Saarland state. She told Funke Media Gruppe that “putting forward specific figures with specific timeframes” is a way of setting yourself up to fail. Rehlinger also said that a large number of Syrians are now playing a key role in the German economy.
Luise Amtsberg of the Green Party has referred to his country’s guests as “German-Syrians,” which causes one to wonder how long it will be before Syrian migrants are coerced to leave Germany, or just packed into planes and ground transport without warning and taken out of the country. This is what Amtsberg said to the newspaper Rheinische Post.
As much as it feels good to see other countries start to catch up to President Trump in the way they are now reading the room, I have two observations: First, why does it always take them so long? It’s not like Trump hasn’t been talking about all of this since 2016. Second, I get this sinking feeling in my stomach around now, because just when conservative America starts to show the rest of the world “the way,” our own milquetoast Republicans seem bent on losing in the midterms, and thus all of this momentum is lost.
We can’t afford to let Republicans play to type this time around. Come on, GOP, you know what to do, and you know that we know you know what to do. It’s time. Step up and lead the rest of the world so that once all these other countries decide to follow us, ours will still be a country worth following.
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