Press Review: Post-Colognial Blues

Slovak PM Rejects Muslim Refugees: Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he wants to stop arrivals of Muslim refugees in his country, following the mass sexual assaults committed by mostly Arabic migrants in Cologne. Fico, a socialist, had previously rejected the European Union's proposed refugee forced relocation program along with other Central European countries. Source: Focus

CSU Demands 200,000 Refugee Cap, Merkel Rejects: Horst Seehofer, leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Social Union sister party in Bavaria, called for a "complete U-turn on refugee policy in 2016" at a closed-door meeting of his party. "If nothing changes, then our political coalition [with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union] has had its best times behind it," he warned. Merkel, who was also attending the meeting, again rejected the CSU's call to impose an annual upper limit of 200,000 refugees.

Separately, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said that if any perpetrators are found to be asylum seekers, they would, "have to operate on the assumption that they will be deported from Germany, whatever the status of their [application]." German officials said that the number of migrants arriving in Germany daily "are not declining." Source: Open Europe

Germans Form Anti-Rape Vigilante Group in Düsseldorf: Germans in the city of Düsseldorf, near Cologne, have formed a "Düsseldorf Is Watching" vigilante group to protect women from sexual assault in the streets. The group's Facebook page already has over 8,600 members. German police have discouraged the group from seeking out criminals. Source: Breitbart

UN Demands West Takes 1 Million Refugees Yearly: Peter Sutherland, the United Nations Special Representative for Migration, has demanded that "[i]n 2016, developed countries should agree to accept a combined total approaching a million refugees annually."

The Irish UN official singled out Europe in particular for criticism: "The most urgent priority is to create safe and legal paths for refugees to reach Europe. [. . .] [T]he EU should be more systematically generous in determining how many to admit, and it should implement organized ways to facilitate their entry."

Sutherland however fears that anti-immigration politics are spreading: "Anti-migrant parties already are in power in Hungary and Poland. Their success is compelling mainstream parties to adopt anti-migrant policies as well." Sutherland has previously held senior positions at Goldman Sachs, the World Trade Organization, and the European Commission. Source: Project Syndicate

UK Banks Say City of London Can Survive Brexit from EU: Speaking to the House of Commons, Mark Astaire, Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Barclays, said, “I think [the UK] would continue to thrive outside the [European] Union. Do I think there is a risk that if we were to leave the union that the UK would not be the leading financial centre in Europe? I do not.” He added that there is a risk that Britain could be “side-lined.”

European leaders have long claimed that EU membership is key to reducing vulnerability to international financial speculation. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl argued in the 1990s that the UK would be forced to join the Eurozone or see the City of London's business shift to Frankfurt, a threat that has not happened. Source: Open Europe