German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday she will no longer use her famous migration crisis rallying cry, “We can do it,” since it has become just another phrase.
Merkel repeated “wir schaffen das” time and again as hundreds of thousands of refugees, fleeing war and persecution, entered Germany last year.
In an interview with the financial newspaper Wirtschaftswoche that was cited in an AFP report, Merkel said she’s done with it. Her open-door refugee policy has come under intense criticism, including from members of her own conservative party who say the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has lost voters because of Merkel’s resolve on migration.
“I sometimes think this phrase was a little overstated, that too much store was set by it — to the extent that I’d prefer not to repeat it,” Merkel said. “It’s become a simple slogan, an almost meaningless formula.”
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She understood that some people had been “provoked” by the phrase and added that her intention was to inspire, not to irritate.
Merkel’s stance on migration has been a source of tensions within her governing coalition and has also been linked to the rise of the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The chancellor first said “we can do it” in August last year, which quickly became a much-repeated catchword for her government’s response to the migration crisis. The stance — and slogan — garnered Merkel worldwide praise.
The AfD beat Merkel’s conservatives in regional elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern earlier this month, taking 21 percent of the vote.
The party is also hoping to do well in the Berlin regional elections Sunday.
