Can Angela Merkel prevent Europe being eaten away at its core? | Timothy Garton Ash

The German chancellor is at the heart of the EU project. But the migrant crisis and this week’s election reverse pose unprecedented threats

Why did you come to Germany and not Italy? I ask Jawad, a skinny 16-year-old from Afghanistan, standing outside his family’s blanket-tented six square metres of home at an emergency refugee reception centre in an east Berlin sports hall. Six months ago he spoke no German, but now he replies without hesitation: “Italien hat kein Geld!” Italy has no money! Short and to the point. A million Jawads arriving in a single year have so shaken up rich and bourgeois-liberal Germany that a xenophobic, anti-immigrant party has just won nearly a quarter of the vote in one east German state. Around the world people are asking: can Europe’s centre hold?

Politically and economically, Germany is the centre of Europe. The “grand coalition” government of centre-right Christian Democrats and centre-left Social Democrats is the centre of Germany. And Angela Merkel is the centre of that centrist government. In a real sense, therefore, Merkel is the centre of Europe.

Related: German elections: the candidates who backed Merkel's refugee stance – and won

Merkel’s plan requires an alarming dependence on two erratic and undemocratic rulers, Erdoğan and Putin

Continue reading...