When you make a deal with the devil, it’s certain the devil will insist you keep up your end of the bargain.
That’s precisely where we are at today in regards to the European refugee crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed off on a deal with the devil (Turkey) that would give 80 million Turkish Muslims visa-free access to the EU. As part of the deal, Turkey will receive €3 billion in aid.
In return, Turkey agreed to halt the flow of refugees pouring into Greece.
Turkey did stop the flow of refugees into Greece, and now the devil wants his due.
“Growing Panic”
The Financial Times reports EU States Grow Wary as Turkey Presses for Action on Visas Pledge.
European diplomats are agonising over their politically perilous promise to grant visa-free travel to 80m Turks, amid strong warnings from Ankara that the EU migration deal will fold without a positive visa decision by June.
The EU’s month-old deal to return migrants from Greece to Turkey has dramatically cut flows across the Aegean, easing what had been an acute migration crisis. But the pact rests on sweeteners for Ankara that the EU is struggling to deliver — above all, giving Turkish citizens short-term travel rights to Europe’s Schengen area.
Germany, France and other countries nervous of a political backlash over Muslim migration have started exploring options to make the concession more politically palatable, including through safeguard clauses, extra conditions or watered-down terms. The political calculations are further complicated by looming EU visa decisions for Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo.
One senior EU official said the search for alternatives reflected “growing panic” in Berlin and Paris over the looming need to deliver the pledge. The various options, the official added, were “a political smokescreen” to muster support in the Bundestag and European Parliament, which must also vote on the measures.
The Turkish visa issue has even flared in Britain’s EU referendum campaign, forcing David Cameron, the prime minister, to clarify on Wednesday that Turks could not automatically come to the UK if they were granted visa rights to the 26-member Schengen area.
Devil Chimes In
“They cannot and should not change the rules of the game . . . We expect them to stick to what was agreed, otherwise how can we continue to trust the EU? We delivered on our side of the bargain. Now it is their turn,” said the devil’s spokesperson, Selim Yenel, Turkey’s ambassador to the EU.
Supposedly it now takes a “a political smokescreen” to muster support in the Bundestag and European Parliament, which must also vote on the measures.
In other words, Merkel signed off on a deal that was not hers to make.
The devil himself chimed in.
“The EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently.
EU Unhappiness
Brussels is unhappy with the way Turkey has passed data protection laws and has issues with some of its terrorism legislation impinging on minority rights.
EU officials have in the past blamed Ankara’s liberal visa policy — and even the plethora of destinations offered by Turkish Airlines — for making it too easy for people to risk the trip to Europe via Turkey. At the same time, Brussels is also demanding that Turkey give visa-free access to all EU citizens.
In regards to the above EU unhappiness, a lawyer representing the devil emailed me today stating “Where does the deal specify data protection and minority rights? Please show me the clause.”
The devil ended his email to Mish with this line “When did I promise happiness?”
Deal History
- March 7: Devil Demands and Receives More Concessions from Merkel: In Bed with a Dictator
- March 8: Needs of the “One”; Merkel’s Backstabbing; Devil Cheers
- March 9: EU leaders Recoil from Merkel’s Deal With the Devil
- March 15: Tusk Blasts Merkel Citing “Animal Farm”, Seeks to “Rebalance” Refugee Deal
- April 20: Devil demands his due, stating “It’s too late to rebalance signed deal”.
- Unknown Future Date: I saw Satan laughing with delight the day the EU died.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
What deal? Is Merkel now Fuhrer of Europe? Or maybe Commissar would be more like it…
They used to say, “Guess who’s coming to dinner”. Now they will be saying. “Guess who’s having us as dinner”.
Hey Pyrrhus, didn’t you get the memo?
So, the EU dies, leaving a bunch of warring Islamic European countries to fight it out? Guess those who said “we either fight ’em over there, or fight ’em at home” were right.
The death of empires sure can appear absurd at times.
Closer to sad , like a bunch of clowns in front of a silent packed audience where no one is laughing .
They meant to be absurd – you were supposed to be entertained .
Why do you think they try to silence people , it isn’t to stop them booing but so that they might believe they have everyone’s attention , and believe it they do .
I want to thank you and compliment you for changing your blog format. The new format is a lot easier to read. Great job Mish! Keep up the good work propagating the truth. As a retire dependent on our nest egg an social security, you information is very helpful in managing investment risks. Bob Henryretired 10 years, age 68Tucson, AZ
Thanks Bob
Appreciate that comment.
People can more easily see snips of articles and choose which ones they want to read. I have tried to give a good feel for the article in those leading snips.
Mish
What devil? Merkel knew exactly what she signed on and so did the rest of the EU. It’s not like Erdogan was tricking 80 yo grandparents into a Ponzi scheme. They had plenty of other options: building a fence, mass deportation, deals with other 3rd world countries.
The EU has nobody to blame but themselves.
You have to consider that maybe they never did plan to give visas , that it was a stop gap measure that could be politicised in EU , and that Turkey knows this .
Merkel has set the tone , so which will it be .
Will she keep her end of the bargain and allow automatic LTV visas to Germany in spite of lack of EU accord ?
Maybe she can build a ‘qualified majority’ to push through the legislation , which appears to be the format since the Treaty of Amsterdam on immigration, leaving dissenting nations to attempt to protest on grounds of subsidiarity ?
EU is so used to steam-rolling legislation through that the span between informal acceptance with sovereign option clauses turning into de facto EU legislative reality is closer and closer to zero .
Why do people assume the status quo will always exist. All things come to an end even Europe and the United States. For the new to come in the old must die out. Europe has had a good run, almost a thousand years more or less. No telling what Euorpe will look like after another hundred years. The west is dying but nothing of any substance is coming to replace it.
Where they could not hold or extend an empire abroad , they decided that bringing the abroad home would do.
We then get to watch them try to legislate over their creation , until the certainty is lost, at which point …
If this issue hangs around for a while it could have a profound effect on the Brexit vote in June.
Can anyone tell me why she wants to flood the EU with refugees? At some point I envision another crusade, however it will not be in the holy land.
Because closed doors are only for the elite .
@Michael. Tony Blair plotted to open the floodgates on immigration as he knew grateful new arrivals would vote for his party, so assuring an unassailable vote-bank for perhaps a generation and more. He dressed it up as a moral/colonial obligation. Merkel is doing similar, moral + suggesting it will reinvigorate the former East Germany’s shot demographics. Trouble is the immigrants will likely head for where there is maximum financial advantage/hand-outs. Never mind Turkey, that’s unlikely to be the former East Germany either.
Blair, April 2005:
“It is precisely because we have been working hard at it that, over the past few years, asylum claims have fallen in Britain faster than anywhere else in Europe. But we know we have to tighten the asylum system further.
I also understand concern over immigration controls. We will put in place strict controls that work. They will be part of our first legislative programme if we are re-elected on May 5. These controls will include the type of points system used in Australia, for example, to help ensure our economy gets the skills we need.”
” … I heard about asylum applicants playing the system through an over complex appeal system. So we’ve introduced a single tier of appeal, we’ve the limited the scope of legal aid, and we’ve weeded out cowboy immigration advisers.
It was from the front line that I heard the courts aren’t taking illegal working seriously so, in our manifesto, we are committed to bring in fixed penalty fines of £2,000 on employers for each illegal employee we find.”
However, as a poodle of the USA , Blair assisted in the continuing destabilisation of secular dictatorships in the Middle East, allowing racial, tribal, and sectarian hell to break loose.
Hence the flood of asylum seekers and refugees. Perhaps the architects of this destabilisation policy should take responsibility for the welfare of these folks, until their countries are once again safe to live in.
Because the Socialists “have run out of other people’s money” over there and they are desperate to bring new potential “marks” into their faltering Ponzi scheme.
Mish, you forgot a musical tribute. If I may be so bold. 🙂
I am going to plead ignorance here with my question: but, aside from being somewhat of a barrier to refugees getting to Europe, what does Turkey offer to Europe? An educated workforce? Assess to natural resources or food? Protection from some foe like Russia?
It would seem that Europe has a lot more to offer to Turkey in terms of technology, finished goods, and food. Somethings are not adding up.
You are an MD and you don’t know how to spell “access”? What school did you go to?
Anyone can do a typo. WordPress doesn’t allow edits.
“WordPress doesn’t allow edits.”
Correct, woot, but that wasn’t a typo. Look at your keyboard: c is not next to s. You better know how to spell it right the first time.
I asked Mish to allow editing like the old blog did, but apparently he cannot make it happen.
Could have been auto correct, foreign keyboard, or was just thinking of something else…
Europeans are getting their righteous egalitarian butts handed to them.
All people should be “egalitarian” (equal) in the human rights that they have, but equal in intelligence or ability? Hard to think of a more stupid idea.
I should have added, some politicians seem to be pushing the stupid idea.
Cue Mash theme
….suicide is painless
It brings on many changes
And I can take or leave it if I please…
Not so sure about the ” painless ” or “take or leave it” part.
Europe needs a Trump.
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