German chancellor Angela Merkel has taken the center stage as the leader of a coalition of nations about the world that have taken to their own voices and media to express their repugnance and staunch opposition to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order restricting travel from the US to seven Muslim countries. Merkel has welcomed over a million refugees into Germany since the European migrant crisis began, and she avers that Trump’s actions are violations against international peace. Merkel and Trump shared a phone call on the 28^th of January, and she was determined to make known her qualms and remind the American president of his foreign responsibilities, especially those pertaining to NATO and bilateral relations. Steven Seibert, spokesman of Merkel’s, expressed that the fight against terrorism doesn’t overlook blatant, invidious persecution:

“She is convinced that the necessary, decisive battle against terrorism does not justify a general suspicion against people of a certain origin or a certain religion.

The Geneva Conventions, it should be noted, stipulate that the whole of the international community accept refugees as a humanitarian means. Both she and British Prime Minister Theresa May bemoaned the ban and fear that it will prejudice their nationals, as well as others’.

Italy’s prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, tweeted, saying that his country was committed to the values that bind Europe: “Open society; plural identity; no discrimination.”

However, the head of Italy’s rising anti-immigrant Northern league demonstrated exuberant admiration for Trump’s expedient:

“What Trump’s doing on the other side of the ocean, I’d like it done here, too,” said Matteo Salvini regarding hundreds of thousands of migrants that have entered Italy in the past year, regarded as “an invasion under way which needs to be blocked”.

But whom does the ban affect really? It affects citizens of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen; all of which will be proscribed from entry for 90 days. Moreover, green card holder must now undergo additional vetting; whereupon, they may be rejected by the local US consulate. Refugees seeking asylum in the US will be banned for 120 days, with those hailing from Syria being so indefinitely.