Sooner or later reality raises its ugly little head.

“We need orderly conditions at the EU’s external border,” one tweet from the German interior ministry in Arabic, Farsi, English and German went.

Another one was “We will use our best efforts to support Greece in achieving this. Europe’s borders are not open for #refugees from #Turkey, and neither are our German borders.”

The German government – anxious about the political consequences of a “repeat of 2015” – is tolerating Greece’s decision to suspend asylum claims at its borders and has launched a social media campaign to deter Syrian refugees from embarking on a journey to central Europe.

“We don’t want a repeat of the year 2015.”

Where’s Angela Merkel been hiding out these days?