It is probably no coincidence that the chancellor referred to a timeframe of three years, as he will be seeking re-election in 2029 in an extremely tough race against the AfD, which is neck-and-neck in the polls with his CDU.<\/p>\n
Critics of Mr Merz\u2019s Syria plan, including voices in his own coalition, say that it is \u201cunrealistic\u201d, with one Green Party politician calling it \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is sheer cynicism that Chancellor Merz is making concessions to Syrian interim president Al-Sharaa, apparently only to facilitate deportations. Over the past 12 months, there have been repeated attacks on minorities such as Druze, Alawites, and Kurds,\u201d Dr Alhamwi, an MP for the Green Party, told The Telegraph.<\/p>\n
\u201cChancellor Merz\u2019s announcement that 80 per cent of people from Syria should leave Germany is a slap in the face to all those who have found a new home here in the last 10 years and have integrated into society,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Mr Merz\u2019s office addressed the criticism and said the chancellor was \u201caware of the scale of the task\u201d. It also insisted that the target of 80 per cent of Syrians was first suggested by the Syrian government.<\/p>\n
Much of Germany\u2019s Syrian population is deeply integrated into German society, having resided there for more than a decade, with many Syrians raising families and working full time.<\/p>\n
As Mr Merz himself noted, Syrians make up a significant proportion of his country\u2019s share of foreign doctors, and some will be needed to address shortages in the labour market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is probably no coincidence that the chancellor referred to a timeframe of three years, as he will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[7246,233,249,7245,270,238,3170,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-7394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-friedrich-merz","8":"tag-alternative-for-germany-afd","9":"tag-friedrich-merz","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-refugee-crisis","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-syria","14":"tag-us-content","15":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116342638869008656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}