Greek PM: Merkel Risked Her "Political Capital" Managing Migration Crisis

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras praised German Chancellor Angela Merkel's pro-European migration policy, which is being largely criticized in Germany.

"This policy is one of the positive aspects of Angela Merkel's actions. She tried to act in the interests of Europe during the migration crisis. It was challenging," Tsipras said in an interview with Die Welt newspaper.

Tsipras noted that Merkel risked her "political capital" while managing the migration crisis.

The Greek prime minister stated that from 50 up to 100 migrants continued to arrive in Greece every day, and that it was challenging for the country to cope with such an influx, according to the newspaper.

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The so-called open-door policy, initiated by Merkel, has prompted criticism from a number of political parties and movements that oppose migration. In October 2017, Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the respective leaders of the allied Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union in Bavaria, announced an agreement to reduce the inflow of migrants to 200,000 people a year.

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Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries, with Italy, Spain and Greece being the main entry points for migrants.