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European leaders must send a much stronger message: they will no longer offer "refuge and support" to migrants if they want to curb the right-wing populism spreading on the continent, said Hillary Clinton in an interview published Thursday.
Ms Clinton said that while the decision of some countries to welcome migrants was admirable, she had opened the door to political unrest, the rise of the right and Britain's decision to withdraw from the European Union.
"I think Europe has to master the migrations because that's what ignited the flame," Clinton said during the interview with The Guardian, which took place before the elections mid-term in the United States this month.
"I admire the very generous and compassionate approaches adopted especially by leaders like Angela Merkel, but I think it's fair to say that Europe has done its part and needs to send a message very clear: we will not be able to continue to provide refuge and support – because if we do not deal with the issue of migration, it will continue to shake the body politic, "she said.
The European Union has been struggling to develop a comprehensive migration policy as a result of an influx of refugees and migrants who, in 2015 alone, has brought more than one million people in Europe.
Even though the number of newcomers has been reduced to a fraction of what it was before, the far-right parties have seized the issue and have gained a foothold in the parliaments and governments of the continent. Anti-immigration candidates took power in Italy and Austria, and they won seats in countries like Germany.
The open migration policies of Merkel, Chancellor of Germany since 2005, have ended up causing unrest in her government and have contributed to major electoral setbacks. She recently announced that she would step down as Conservative Party leader in December and not run again in 2021.
In the United States, Democrats also struggled to adopt a collective position on immigration to counter President Trump's unwavering attention to the issue.
In the run-up to the mid-term elections, Trump and his associates managed to cope with a steady stream of negative headlines over the brutal murder of a dissident by his close ally, the l. Saudi Arabia, drawing attention to a large caravan of Central Americans traveling to the southern border of the United States.
After the publication of Clinton's comments, some officials and academics denounced her criticism of European migration policies, claiming that they reflected the mentality of the highly populist critics she criticized.
David Lammy, a member of the British Parliament, urged politicians to "not stand against migrants, but in unfailing solidarity with them," in a tweet on Thursday.
Tanja Bueltmann, a professor of history at Northumbria University in Britain, who deals with migration issues, countered Clinton's claims in a tweet.
"To give in to this populism, as you unfortunately propose here, is exactly the opposite of what we should do," she wrote.
In an interview she said that Clinton's point of view was "tragically misjudged".
"The reality is of course that right-wing extreme right-wing far-right populists have used migration and the refugee crisis to ignite this flame," Bueltmann said. "To say, therefore, that the best solution is to relieve them by putting an end to support and refuge, is the wrong answer. In the end, immigration is not the problem that has inflamed voters: far more fundamental issues, such as austerity, are the real reason. Immigrants and refugees are just the scapegoats that populists have chosen to use to advance their ideas. "
