It has been around 10 years since then-Chancellor Angela Merkel formulated her historic statement: “We can do it,” was the Chancellor’s message in the summer of 2015, addressing the challenges facing Germany in light of the high number of refugees: Approximately 1.1 million asylum seekers sought protection in Germany in 2015 and 2016.
The Chancellor’s words have become perhaps her most famous – and at the same time most controversial – statement. Green Party leader Felix Banaszak sees more than just a sentence in the former Chancellor’s three words: “It was a political claim and a humanitarian imperative,” the Green Party leader explains to fr.de from Ippen.Media. “Today, ten years later, we see that many people who came to us back then have long since become part of our society, working, starting businesses, and engaging in community activities,” Banaszak concludes.
Ten years after Merkel’s “We can do it”: Banaszak criticizes shortcomings in migration policy
A positive assessment of integration, which the Green Party leader probably doesn’t attribute to the then federal government: “Integration is not automatic, but a task, and it succeeds where it is seriously supported,” he explains, addressing, in his view, shortcomings of the Merkel government: “The then federal government failed to create viable structures for reception and integration early on; that was a serious mistake.” Against this background, he adds, “the commitment of civil society and local authorities deserves all the more recognition.”
Katrin Fey, human rights spokesperson for the Left Party, also shares the criticism of the Merkel government’s migration policy. “Unfortunately, the government’s correct statement was followed by only half-hearted action. Neither sufficient personnel nor financial resources were provided, and integration as an opportunity for both sides was not consistently pursued,” the Left Party MP explained to our editorial team.
Bündnis90/Die Grünen
With regard to the current federal government’s migration policy under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Fey also criticizes: “The new government has definitively and deliberately reduced this statement to absurdity.” She accuses the CDU/CSU and SPD government of failing to respect human dignity or the right to asylum: “Strictly speaking, this statement is now the target formulation for deportations, border closures, and isolation.”
Border controls and rejections: What has become of Merkel’s “We can do it”?
Since Merkel’s “We can do it,” a lot has changed, not only with regard to the social mood in Germany, but also in migration policy. Shortly after the new coalition government took office in spring 2025, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt ordered the expansion of border controls, including the rejection of asylum seekers. The federal government later initiated the suspension of family reunification for those granted subsidiary protection. Furthermore, the coalition wants to abolish the three-year naturalization process introduced a year ago for people with special integration achievements—the so-called “turbo naturalization.” Migration experts, opposition representatives, and even SPD politicians have criticized the measures.
