ميركل تؤكد فشل التعددية الثقافية في ألمانيا

أكدت رئيسة الوزراء الألمانية المستشارة "أنجيلا ميركل" في خطابها أمام أعضاء الشباب بحزبها الديمقراطي النصراني بمدينة "بوتسدام" - أن التعددية الثقافية بالمجتمع الألماني فشلت تمامًا.

وتأتي هذه التصريحات للتزامن مع تصريحات "هورست سيهوفر" رئيس ولاية "بافاريا" وعضو الحزب النصراني الديمقراطي، الذي أكد مؤخرًا أن التعددية الثقافية قد لقيت حتفها.

وبالرغم من تأكيدها على أهمية الهجرة - وخصوصًا من أصحاب المهارات - في دعم سوق العمل، إلا أنها أكدت أيضًا أنه يجب على راغبي الهجرة لبلادها تعلم الألمانية والتزام القانون الألماني.

الخبر من مصدره الأصلي:

Chancellor Merkel says German multiculturalism has 'utterly failed'

In a speech to supporters, Chancellor Angela Merkel said multiculturalism in Germany has not been successful. Party leaders also sparred over immigrants' role in filling the country's shortage of skilled workers.

Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed," according to Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"This approach has failed, utterly failed," said Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in a speech to the party's young people's association in Potsdam on Saturday. She added that not enough was done in the past to support the movement.

"The failures of the last 30 or 40 years cannot be resolved so quickly," she said.

The comments followed a similar speech from Horst Seehofer, head of the CDU's Bavarian sister party to the CSU. On Friday he declared his party's stance against multiculturalism: "Multiculturalism is dead," he said, to delegates' applause.

Seehofer's comments were criticized by Stephan Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews. In an interview with the Rheinpfalz am Sonntag newspaper, he said the idea that immigrants from Turkey as well as Arab countries found it harder to integrate was "not just tactless, but downright irresponsible."

German-speaking migrants still welcome

In her speech, Merkel stressed that immigrants must learn to speak German in order to be able to compete on the job market.

"Those who want to take part [in our society] must not only obey our laws, they must also master our language," she said.

Merkel's comments come a week after a visit to Berlin by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two leaders said they would work to improve the integration of the some 2.5 million members of the Turkish community in Germany.

Erdogan told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung that Turks living in Germany should learn to speak fluent and accent-free German.

Filling the skilled-worker void

On Saturday, Merkel also underscored the continued importance of immigration to Germany and the job market, especially highly skilled migrants.