The Winter of Europe's Discontent

Usually it takes a little time before the curse of being Time Magazine Person of the Year takes hold. Amazingly, Angela Merkel’s downfall began on New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Then the demons she had unleashed by her open-hearted welcoming of refugees rose up to attack young German women who were out for the evening to celebrate the New Year.

Merkel believed that she was being kind-hearted and welcoming. She even adopted a variant on the Obama administration policy of “Yes, we can.” Now she looks to go down in history as the Chancellor who destroyed Germany.

Apparently, Merkel and her supporters believed that welcoming Muslim refugees was their Christian duty. They were willing to turn the other cheek to the predations of the young males they allowed to molest their daughters, but now they seem to have run out of cheeks.

One notes that Merkel is a conservative politician. The more liberal and social elements in Germany have been cheering her on, but the policy is hers.

Now, the situation is so bad that the highly sober Economist is beginning to be alarmed. It is beginning to see that Europe’s future is anything but bright. Because, the continent has just woken up to the fact that what happened in Cologne has been happening in other European countries, especially in those that are run by left-leaning and feminist politicians.

It writes:

The new-year horrors of Cologne, when hundreds of women were sexually assaulted by marauding groups of men, many of them Muslim asylum-seekers, focused minds on cultural differences. But bringing refugees into the workforce, the main engine of integration, represents at least as big a challenge. The assumption that Germany’s tight labour market was tailor-made for job-hungry migrants has given way to the grim realisation that most are an ill fit for an economy mainly seeking highly skilled workers. The head of one business group reckons almost 80% of refugees have next to no skills at all.

The Economist nicely calls it a challenge, but the more important point is that these migrants are anything but “job-hungry.” Having “next to no skills at all,” being dysfunctional and ineffectual males, they cover up their inadequacy by preying on German women. With no skills they seem to have only one way to proclaim their machismo. The word manhood would be a distortion.

Evidently, Merkel did not consider the consequences of her actions. And she might still not have considered them fully. She was occupying the moral high ground and must have been surprised to see the fallout from her policy.

Her legacy is collapsing:

Such schemes show how far Germany has travelled since its “welcome culture” lifted European liberals’ hearts last summer. Back then Mrs Merkel’s model presented an inspiring alternative to the small-minded xenophobia of leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Now, after the chaos and trauma of the past six months, Mr Orban feels vindicated and the chancellor looks increasingly isolated. Germany has tried to lead in Europe, but others will not follow. To Mrs Merkel’s immense frustration, other EU countries agree to policies like relocation and then ignore them. While German officials try to knit together the geopolitics of the crisis, from Iraq to Turkey and Russia, most other countries would prefer it simply to go away. As for the European Commission, which sometimes looks like the chancellor’s last ally, it has gamely advanced common policies but is too weak to enforce them. “The European dream is vanishing,” sighs one of its senior officials.

As it happens, the woman-friendly policies of places like Germany, Sweden and Denmark have deprived women of their basic liberties. Anyone who disagrees is denounced as racist and told to shut up. Now, in Cologne, with Carnival approaching, authorities have set up safe zones where young women might feel safe from depraved Muslim refugees.

The Telegraph has the story:

Authorities in the German city of Cologne are to set up a “safe zone” for women during the annual carnival which begins next week, to avoid a repeat of the New Year sex attacks on women.

The move comes after it emerged two asylum-seekers from Algeria are being held as suspects in the sex assaults.

The Cologne carnival is one of the largest street festivals in Europe, and attracts more than 1m people to its main parade each year.

There are concerns the large crowds could leave women vulnerable to the sort of attacks seen on New Year’s Eve, when police were havily outnumbered.

The authorities plan to provide extra street lighting and set up a “safe zone” for women in the city centre, staffed with social workers.

A safe zone staffed by social workers—what could be more festive; what could make women feel safer on the streets.

Amazingly, in what must be some kind of a joke, Germany was just named the best country in the world. Some people, dare we say, have no sense of reality.

Now Europeans have also discovered the risks of allowing asylum seekers, as they are called, share swimming pools with Europeans. The only way to protect women in the best country in the world is to ban Muslim men from public swimming pools.

Powerline reports:

The German town of Bornheim, 19 miles south of Cologne, temporarily banned male asylum seekers from its pool this month after receiving complaints of sexual harassment.

Last week, the historic baths Johannisbad baths in Zwickau, Saxony banned all migrants after male asylum seekers had been caught masturbating in a hot tub and sexually assaulting women.

The news from Sweden is no different:

Eriksdalsbadet, which is the biggest aquatics centre in Stockholm, has previously reported a spike in sexual assaults – mainly incidents involving boys and young men groping women. As a result, Stockholm police will now have uniformed police regularly patrolling the swimming centre, and the pool’s hot tubs are now segregated by sex.

And from Belgium:

It comes as a Belgian mayor announced that he would propose banning male refugees from a swimming pool for a month on Monday after complaints from female bathers.

Denmark, for example, is beginning to try to crack down on refugees, but recently a Danish girl who defended herself with pepper spray was fined for using an illegal weapon:

The teenager told police that she was attacked in central Sønderborg on Wednesday at around 10pm by a dark-skinned English-speaking man. She said the man knocked her to the ground and then unbuttoned her pants and attempted to undress her. 

The girl was able to save herself from further assault by using pepper spray on the attacker, but now she may be the one who ends up in legal trouble. 

“It is illegal to possess and use pepper spray, so she will likely be charged for that,” local police spokesman Knud Kirsten told TV Syd. 

The case has sparked a backlash among some Danes who point to increasing reports of sexual harassment in Sønderborg and other Danish cities at the same time that police say they are stretched too thin to properly carry out their duties. 

Numerous readers wrote in the comments section on TV Syd’s story about the incident that they would be willing to pay the girl’s fine, which will most likely be 500 kroner. 

In Denmark the right to self-defense has been trumped by the right to molest Danish women.  Or, should we say, cultural diversity. The incident was not atypical:

Sexual assaults have been in the news in Sønderborg recently after several women in the town reported earlier this month that they sometimes feel harassed by the aggressive behaviour of some male asylum seekers and refugees at the local asylum centre. 

The Danish paper also notes that the local police have been covering up the number of rapes:

Denmark recorded an average of 395 rape cases every year up to 2014. But an investigation by the Ministry of Justice has revealed the actual number to be closer to 1,100 annually, Metroxpress reported on Thursday.

The majority of the ‘missing’ reports were hidden in police statistics by giving them investigation numbers that did not classify them as rape cases. A number of police departments confirmed to Metroxpress that this was standard practice in cases where there was doubt as to whether a rape had actually occurred.

Recently, Denmark decided that it needed to get a bit tough on asylum seekers. It passed a law that allowed officials to confiscate the jewelry and other valuables of asylum seekers. Naturally, defenders of human rights were in an uproar about these racist policies. One notes with chagrin that these defenders of human rights do not care about the victims of the sexual predators who are flooding these countries.

In Sweden, the central train station of Stockholm has been taken over by marauding bands of Moroccan youths who prey on Swedish women. Keep in mind that Sweden is a feminist paradise where men take parental leave and where boys are taught that they must pee sitting down.

Here’s the news from Sweden:

Swedish police warns that Stockholm's main train station has become unsafe after being ‘taken over’ by dozens of Moroccan street children. 

The all-male migrant teen gangs are spreading terror in the centre of the Swedish capital, stealing, groping girls and assaulting security guards, according to Stockholm police.

Members of the gangs, some as young as nine, roam central Stockholm day and night, refusing help provided by the Swedish authorities. 

'These guys are a huge problem for us. They steal stuff everywhere and assault security guards at the central station,' one police officer told SVT.

'They grope girls between their legs, and slap them in the face when they protest. All police officers are aware of this. 

'I would never let my children go to the central station. No officer would.' 

Apparently, Sweden, like Denmark is beginning to come to its senses. The Daily Mail reports this morning:

Sweden intends to kick out up to 80,000 migrants who arrived last year and have had their asylum application rejected, the country announced yesterday.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the Swedish government had asked the police and authorities in charge of migrants to organise their removal.

The proposed measure was revealed as Europe struggles to deal with a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive on Greek beaches, mostly fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Is this too little, too late? One suspects that it is. It is not at all easy to expel that many people, especially when no one will take them. By all indications this is not going to end well.