Migration 16

And of course the approach was to say, now let’s do multiculturalism and live side by side. This approach has failed, absolutely failed!

Speech in front of the Young Members of the CDU

Chancellor Angela Merkel (born 1954) is a politician of the CDU and was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 2005-2021. She was the first woman to hold this post.

As chancellor, Angela Merkel made integration a top priority. “Germans with a migration background” caught the media’s attention because of reports on poverty, social inequality in schools, the labour market and so on. The right-wing conservative camp quickly spoke of self-inflicted poverty and the failure of the "multicultural" approach. Angela Merkel initially relied on state integration policy, for example, seting up the German Islam Conference and Integration Summit which has been held every year since 2006. In the same year as the quote, the former SPD politician Thilo Sarrazin published his book Germany Abolishes Itself. CSU chairman Horst Seehofer referred positively to Sarrazin's idea of a dominant culture. In this statement, Angela Merkel was supporting Seehofer and an authoritarian integration project.

The Guardian (30.08.2010): Bundesbank executive provokes race outcry with book.

2010