In the annual summer interview with German public television station ZDF (which airs tonight), German President Joachim Gauck fully backed the politics of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (both CDU), merkur.de reports today, August 14, 2016.

President Gauck said he backed Angela Merkel's often repeated phrase, "We can do it," to describe the country's ability to handle the refugee crisis. He said that he couldn’t imagine a Chancellor saying “We can’t do it”. "The country is not like a sinking ship in the middle of a powerful hurricane," Gauck said. "Rather, there are just gusts of wind rocking the boat," dw.com reports.

Gauck also backed the new security measures which were proposed by Thomas de Maizière last week. The German government is planning a host of new security measures in the wake of a few violent incidents in Würzburg, Ansbach and Munich. The measures include an increase in police personnel, a central crime unit for pursuing crime on the internet, easier deportation for migrants who have committed crimes, and depriving Germans who join foreign "terror militias" of their citizenship. De Maiziere also announced an increase and upgrade of video surveillance technology in German railways stations.

"I am convinced that these proposals will increase security quickly," Interior Thomas de Maizière told reporters in a special press conference held in Berlin on Thursday, August 11,2016 before adding that all the proposals could be implemented in this legislative period, which ends next fall.