"Can Merkel afford to kill the agreement she has with [Turkish President Recep Tayyp] Erdogan on refugees? No, I don’t think so. I believe, the German government, despite the EU calls for reviewing these and any other agreements with Turkey, will stick to the real politics that require, sometimes, deals with dictators in order to preserve security and stability," Schmidt said.
He added that the German chancellor cannot afford to jeopardize the temporary political calm after rather successful agreement with Turkey that stem a flow of migrants ahead of the upcoming German regional elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin in September.
"Merkel would not want to deal with a growing pressure over refugees ahead of regional elections as it will lead to a surge in popularity for the right-wing parties and will caused difficulty within the coalition with the Social Democrats," Schmidt said.
Moreover, according to the official, the German government is unlikely to reverse its open-door policy that has attracted to the country over a million of migrants during the past year following a recent week of attacks in Germany, as they have no credible links to the Islamic extremism.
He warned, however, of a potential backlash against refugees in Germany following the recent attacks in the country amid the ever increasing amount of terror acts committed by individuals or small groups of Islamists across Europe.
