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🇦🇹 Austria /Elections & Politics

Eleven Years After Merkel’s Famous Words: No, We Can’t Do This

From Der Standard · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis From a news agency Context piece
  • An analysis revisits Angela Merkel’s 2015 statement, “We can do this,” about Germany’s ability to manage the refugee influx.
  • It argues that Europe’s moderate political forces have failed to deal effectively with migration, allowing right-wing parties to gain ground.

Angela Merkel’s most famous political sentence has become part of her legacy, alongside her portrait in the German Chancellery’s gallery of former leaders. Eleven years after she said, “We can do this,” the assessment presented here is blunt: Europe’s moderate forces have not managed to handle migration.

Merkel made the statement on Aug. 31, 2015, during the refugee crisis. Her full formulation was: “We have achieved so much, we can do this. We can do this, and wherever something stands in our way, it must be overcome.” The words were intended as a declaration of confidence.

We can do this.

— Angela MerkelMerkel’s famous statement on Aug. 31, 2015, about managing the refugee crisis.

The article now frames that confidence as misplaced. It says Merkel overestimated Europe’s ability to respond to migration and argues that the failure of more moderate forces has created favorable conditions for the political right.

The phrase remains one of the defining lines of Merkel’s time in office, but its meaning has shifted. Rather than symbolizing an assured European response, it is presented as a reminder of how difficult migration has proved for mainstream politics.

We have achieved so much, we can do this. We can do this, and wherever something stands in our way, it must be overcome.

— Angela MerkelThe fuller version of her 2015 statement.
About this summary

Originally published by Der Standard in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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