German Chancellor Angela Merkel marks a decade in power on Sunday facing the fight of her political life over her liberal stance on refugees, which provoked a party revolt, and fresh fears sparked by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel marks a decade in power on Sunday facing the fight of her political life over her liberal stance on refugees, which provoked a party revolt, and fresh fears sparked by the Paris carnage. In what just a few months ago would have been an unreserved celebration of the German leader at the height of her powers, the 10-year anniversary comes as the migrant crisis looks set to become the defining issue of Ms Merkel’s tenure.
Despite a growing backlash, she has remained defiant and dismissed claims that the hundreds of thousands fleeing war and persecution represent a security threat.
“We are stronger than terrorism,” Ms Merkel said at a G20 summit in Turkey Monday, pledging Germany’s full support in the fight against jihadist violence while maintaining the country as a safe haven for the world’s desperate people. “We owe it to the victims. But it is also vital to our own security, and that of the many innocent refug-ees fleeing terror.”
Ms Merkel in Nove-mber pipped US Presid-ent Barack Obama to take second place in the Forbes power ranking behind Russian Pre-sident Vladimir Putin. She is also the EU’s longest-serving leader.
But the expected arri-val of around one million asylum seekers in Germany in 2015 alone, driven in part by Ms Merkel’s decision in Se-ptember to open the bo-rder, has eroded her su-pport at home.
