Dr. August Hanning is one of the highest-profile internal and external security experts in Germany.
He was the highly respected and successful director of the Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) from 1998 to 2005 and an efficient State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior under famous minister Wolfgang Schäuble from 2005 to 2009. He is still close to the now finance minister, who is expected to take over from Merkel, in case she left office earlier during her term.
Hanning knows a lot of what is going on behind closed doors and is well connected in the senior club of spy-directors from Washington to Moscow, Riad and Beijing. He is a calm and relaxed analyst with excellent insights into Germany, Europe, and the Middle East.
His pointed critique of Angela Merkel‘s refugee policy must be seen as a loud alarm bell, rung by an AAA- expert.
He is not alone with this assessment. Many senior officials in the international and German security communities are worried about how things are developing – but they stay quiet, or only speak out off-the-record in closed door conversations.
Support for Merkel’s leadership in the refugee crisis was recently reaffirmed by the latest party convention of her Christian Democrats (CDU). She still feels justified to stay her course and only agreed to “reduce” the number of refugees coming to Germany.
Some mainly minor and technical actions have been taken by the federal und regional governments recently.
After the very friendly welcome in the summer, the numbers of refugees exploded and the local capacities are not enough any more.
In 2015 alone, this number reached one million in Germany, a country of 81 million people.
Her senior CDU party leaders and almost all members in the parliament stay quiet and dare not criticize her. They stay in line with her whatever happens, shy away from open debates and focus on their party careers.
Some speculate in Berlin: Merkel wants to keep open the option for a coalition with the Green in 2017, a party promoting open borders. Or she wants to avoid nasty pictures of blocking the German borders. Her moral arguments have iron hard interests behind.
Angela Merkel is untouchable, yet isolated, with little desire for different and fresh, new ideas.
In the EU, most Eastern European members dislike the position of the German chancellor and, like Hanning, demand a stop to immigration.
Merkel wants “a European solution”, a distribution of refugees in the EU, and European border control. A mission almost impossible with 28 states involved in the loose European Union. With the Eastern states against and as well the far right on the rise everywhere. No limit and a stop of refugees at the German border has been proposed by the Chancellor -yet.
Let us have a look into the unique analysis and proposals of ex-spy director and former state secretary Dr August Hanning:
He told that Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy would lead to “instability in our country” and a “renunciation of many people from this constitutional state”.
August Hanning is proposing a radical stop of emigration, something avoided by Angela Merkel still:
- Statement of the Federal Chancellor/Government that the intake capacity in Germany is exhausted for the time being, so that Germany is not able to take in any more migrants.
- Instruction to federal police to close borders for migrants without entry permit based on the legal situation and decline entry for travellers without entry permit. Plea to the German states to support the federal police whenever necessary. Strict practice of national and supranational rights.
- No acceptance of applications for asylum from applicants coming to Germany from safe states. Potential exceptions for single underage travelers and families with kids.
- Expedition of regulatory admission and recognition procedures, by way of extended obligations to co-operate for applicants and penalty if false or incomplete data was given
- Immediate freeze on current migration streams on the route through the Balkan. Support of countries that are especially affected by the migration crisis. Comprehensive improvement to protect the EU-external borders, creation of accommodations outside of EU-external borders.
- Restriction of housing for partners and children. Currently, 80% of migrants are 17 to 35 year old males, coming from extended families. It’s expected that without a changing legal situation, every migrant will bring at least four family members on average.
- Mandatory residence for migrants associated with benefit cuts respectively the exclusion from benefits if mandatory residence was hurt.
- Immediate start of a comprehensive program to build accommodations in Germany (in all states) as well as in the Middle East (set-up of accommodations in Jordan and in the northern Kurdish part of Iraq). Future residents should participate in the construction of these accommodations. Procurement of financial support benefits in gulf states and Saudi Arabia. Goal: Eventual return of migrants to their home regions.
- Immediate creation of comprehensive employment schemes and compulsory language and integration courses for migrants.
- Invitation of Federal chancellor/government and the goverments of states, as well as representatives of all relevant social groups to a migration summit, in order to find a coordinated procedure to solve the crisis.
- Conversation of federal chancellor/government with representatives of industrial economy and crafts to encourage employment of migrants, aiming at a mandatory commitment of all parties for education and employment for migrants.
- Program for an immediate increase of the federal und local security services for the new challenges. Employment of additional staff; recruitment and further education of employees with cultural competence and linguistic proficiency