Bavaria Governor Criticizes Merkel’s ‘We Will Manage’ Mantra

Bavaria Governor Criticizes Merkel’s ‘We Will Manage’ Mantra
Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer arrives for a meeting of his Christian Social Union party in Munich, Germany, on May 18, 2015. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)
The Associated Press
7/30/2016
Updated:
7/30/2016

BERLIN—Bavaria’s governor is distancing himself from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mantra that “we will manage” the refugee crisis following several attacks in Germany, including two committed by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS).

Three of four attacks over a week starting July 18 took place in Bavaria. They included the Munich shooting in which an 18-year-old killed nine people then himself; that didn’t involve Islamic extremism.

Merkel and Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, a conservative ally, have long disagreed over her welcoming approach last year to refugees. Merkel repeated Thursday her insistence Germany “will manage” today’s challenges, which has irked critics.

Seehofer said Saturday: “With the best will, I can’t embrace this sentence. The problems are too big for that and the solutions we have so far too unsatisfactory.”