Merkel receives UNESCO Peace Prize for refugee policy

Paris - Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is to be awarded the UNESCO Peace Prize for her refugee policy. The former head of government received the award for "her efforts to take in refugees during the refugee and migration crisis of 2015/16," said the cultural organization of the UN on Tuesday.

🔴 BREAKING NEWS

The Jury of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny - @unesco Peace Prize 🕊️ has awarded the 2022 Prize to Ms Angela Merkel, former Federal Chancellor of Germany, in recognition of her efforts to welcome refugees.

📰Read more: https://t.co/VYO41EyzkZ pic.twitter.com/WBLwUpKEun

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳😷 (@UNESCO) August 23, 2022

The international jury, chaired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege, justified the award ceremony with words of appreciation. "All jury members were touched by their courageous decision to take in more than 1.2 million refugees in 2015, particularly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea," he said. "This is the legacy she leaves behind."

"We don't want to do it at all"
"We can do it." Merkel announced this sentence, which has become historic, during the refugee crisis at the end of August 2015. A few days later, without consulting the cabinet, the federal states or the European Union, she arbitrarily opened Germany's borders to take in refugees who came via the Balkan route and Hungary.

The CDU politician then repeatedly countered sharp criticism. "No, we don't want to do it at all," Alexander Gauland, the current AfD honorary chairman, commented on Merkel's decision in October 2015.

Dispute in the Union because of Merkel
There was also rumbling in her own party. With an open letter, over 120 politicians of the Union positioned themselves against their then party leader and the "line of the CDU-led federal government in refugee policy". At a meeting of the CDU parliamentary group in the Bundestag at that time, a "great resentment" about Merkel's refugee policy erupted, as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted at the time. Former CSU leader Horst Seehofer complained about the "rule of injustice".

The prize, named after the former President of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouët-Boigny, which Merkel is now to receive, has been awarded annually since 1989 to people, organizations or institutions that make "particular efforts to promote and secure peace" in the world. According to UNESCO, the date and place of the award ceremony are yet to be announced.

Source: Junge Freiheit