'Multikulti' has failed in Germany, says chancellor Angela Merkel

This is mostly an attempt to reign in possible new forces on the right. Wilders' success in the Netherlands has prompted the creation of an analogous anti-muslim party in Germany (curiously including the former speaker of the local pirate party), and the conservatives of the CDU/CSU are scared of losing parts of their traditional electorate to it. The 'C's in CDU/CSU stand for "Christian".

"Multikulti" is just a straw man; what happened is that we imported a lot of people when we needed them, and the left's position was "what if we let them live their life as they please". The Christian right, naturally, has never really been on board with that idea, and uses the supposed taboo whenever easy points need to be scored.

A conversation for reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/ds4sv/merkel_says...

These days, it's "racist" to say that if you live in a country, you should make the effort to learn the local language.

To quote: He [Stephan Kramer] said the debate about immigration was making people "uneasy and scared".

Reminds me of what's going on in the States, albeit a much different atmosphere.