Sarrazin affair highlights Germany's integration problems

The ideas put forward by Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin display intellectual vanity and moral dishonour in the opinion of business paper Jornal de Negócios, but it notes that they nonetheless raise important issues: "Sarrazin has disrupted the camouflage tactics which, given Berlin's growing opposition to Turkey's EU accession, wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. The political justifications tend to get mixed up with arguments about maintaining a secular European Union or one that is based on Christian roots. But in both cases the EU is regarded as incapable of allowing a country with more that 70 million mostly Sunni and Alevi Muslims to become a member. ... The Sarrazin affair has opened up a polemic that was delayed by the refusal of the German parties to discuss issues pertaining to the integration of Muslim immigrants."

» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Integration, » Germany, » Europe