Merkel backs tougher laws on refugees as Cologne protest turns violent

German riot police broke up far-right protesters in Cologne on Saturday as they marched against Germany’s open-door migration policy after dozens of asylum seekers were arrested for mass assaults on women on New Year’s Eve. Amid the heightened public pressure, Chancellor Angela Merkel hardened her stance toward refugees — some 1.1 million of whom arrived last year — shortly before Saturday’s protest began, promising expulsion for criminals and a reduction in numbers over the longer term to Germany.

If a refugee flouts the rules, then there must be consequences, that means that they can lose their residence right here regardless of whether they have a suspended sentence or a prison sentence.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at a meeting of the Christian Democrats

Merkel’s remarks on Saturday were in stark contrast to her earlier optimism about the influx to Germany, which has taken in far more refugees than any other European country. With anger running high as the scale of the rampage including sexual assaults a week ago became clear, supporters of the xenophobic PEGIDA movement marched in the western German city in protests that briefly turned ugly. The New Year’s Eve mob violence has played into popular fears and threatened to cloud what had been a broadly welcoming mood in Germany, where crowds cheered as Syrian refugees arrived by train in September.

Those in focus of criminal police investigations are mostly people from North African countries. The majority of them are asylum seekers and people who are in Germany illegally.

Cologne police