UK Independence Party (UKIP) MEPs have slammed Germany’s leaders over their part in the handling of Europe’s migrant crisis, which they say has led to a “summer of slaughter”, and their response to the terrorism which is coming to mark 2016.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was accused of having “blood on her hands” following her open invitation to all Syrians to apply for asylum in Germany, despite threats from Islamic State that they would flood the continent with jihadi fighters.
And the Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrman was also chastised for “unusual” comments in which he appeared to lament that a suicide bomber had turned out to be from Syria after all.
More than a million people entered European Union (EU) states illegally by sea last year, of whom a third claimed to be from Syria. But many are un-papered, while others have been found to have bought fake Syrian documents in an attempt to claim asylum.
UKIP defence spokesman Mike Hookem MEP, who spent last summer investigating the migrant crisis and warned of the huge risks to security posed by Angela Merkel’s open door migrant policy, said: “This woman ignored the direct threats from Isis [Islamic State] herself last summer when they said they would ‘flood’ the continent with jihadi fighters and here we have another devastating attack in Germany with the perpetrator a Syrian migrant.
“Once these people have German passports they can travel to all the other countries in the EU so Merkel has not only created a problem for Germany but for other EU countries too – and it’s impossible to put the cork back in the bottle.
“Mrs Merkel, meanwhile, appears to be in hiding.”
Referring to the killing of a pregnant woman by a Syrian migrant in a machete attack which left two others injured, Mr. Hookem continued: “Even though the German authorities are still insisting that this is nothing to do with terrorism, we have someone who has come into Germany from Syria and killed innocent people, continuing this summer of slaughter.”
Shortly after the news broke of the machete attack, it emerged that another asylum seeker, whose asylum application had been rejected, had detonated a suicide bomb packed with metal shrapnel near a music festival, also in Germany.
In response, the Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann said it was “unfortunately very obvious that a real Islamist suicide attack has taken place”.
But Mr. Hookem’s fellow UKIP MEP Jane Collins called his comment “unusual”, and slammed the German authorities for trying to obfuscate the terrorist nature of the attacks.
“It is tragic that Germany has had such a traumatic week full of bloodshed, including young people and of course the awful murder of the pregnant lady,” she told Breitbart London.
“But the message from the German establishment seems to be that they would rather the attackers were anyone but Muslim migrants to avoid shining a spotlight on the utter failure of their policy of letting in 1.1 million migrants without any checks.
“The narrative coming from German politicians and government agencies seems to be focusing on how the attacks were definitely nothing to do with terrorism or mass migration rather than what they are doing to stop this devastating loss of life and learn from what has already happened.
“In the case of the foiled suicide attack at the Ansbach music festival one could interpret the words of the Bavarian minister to say that he would rather the bomber was a German national than a Syrian migrant. Personally I think home grown terrorism is a much bigger problem but perhaps the upper echelons of German politics would rather not face the blame for their dangerous, lax security than deal with deep rooted cultural problems within communities.”
In total, three attacks have taken place in Germany since Friday, rocking a continent already reeling from two attacks in France the week before.
The wave of terror meant that Germany is “facing the sad but inevitable consequences of non-existent border controls from countries with terrorist strongholds,” Mr. Hookem said.
“It’s impossible to put the cork back in the bottle after Merkel let 1.1 million migrants into the country, some of which will of course be genuine refugees but some will have been jihadis.”
Calling on the British government to protect her citizens, Mr. Hookem said that the attacks highlighted a “desperate need for [Britain] to invest in border controls now after years of the service being run down and agency staff numbers cut whilst the Home Office happily allowed our security to be taken over by Brussels”.
He concluded: “It’s a no-brainer for Mrs. May – protect the country and the people as much as we can with strong border checks, embarkation controls and more staff and checks at UK ports.”