As is often the case, the phrase was not meant to become a slogan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel uttered the now-famous words "Wir schaffen das" ("We will manage") in a press conference on August 31, 2015, to express her confidence in Germany's ability to integrate the hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving at its borders in the wake of the Syrian conflict. she did not anticipate that the phrase would "blow up in her face," as she later wrote in her memoirs. Nor did she imagine it would still make headlines a decade later.

"We will not manage," declared Friedrich Merz on January 20, during his successful bid to become chancellor in the February 23 legislative elections. The campaign was overshadowed by a series of deadly attacks carried out by people of immigrant origin. "We have obviously not succeeded," he repeated during his summer interview on July 13, again seeking to distance himself from the legacy of his predecessor. The German right has blamed Merkel for the rise of the far right over the past decade. Between two and three million refugees have arrived in Germany over the past 10 years, including 1.1 million in 2015 and 2016. Just over one million Ukrainians arrived after 2022.

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