AFP, BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel marks a decade in power 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 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,” 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 refugees fleeing terror.” Buoyed by the robust German economy and a pivotal role in global crisis management, Merkel this month pipped US President Barack Obama to take second place in the Forbes power ranking behind Russian President Vladimir Putin. She is also the EU’s longest-serving leader.
But the expected arrival of around one million asylum seekers in Germany this year alone, driven in part by Merkel’s decision in September to open the border, has eroded her support at home. The influential Die Zeit weekly has called the refugee crisis “the beginning of the end” of the Merkel era, while Der Spiegel sees the chancellor as increasingly “isolated”.
The man she unseated as chancellor in 2005, Gerhard Schroeder, has been withering in his assessment: “Frau Merkel has a heart but no plan.”
Opinion polls show her conservative CDU-CSU alliance losing ground, now tallying just 34-percent support, versus 41.5 percent at the last national elections in 2013.
Merkel appears to be sacrificing many of those voters to the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany, which has surged to 10.5 percent support.
“There is no doubt about it, this is the biggest challenge of Merkel’s time in office,” says a senior aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Despite Merkel’s “We will manage” mantra, doubts about how Germany will cope with the influx have also given rise to unprecedented backbiting against the 61-year-old leader. Cabinet heavyweights Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble have repeatedly gone rogue, daring put distance between themselves and Merkel.
The chancellor has taken steps in recent weeks to calm the waters including tightening refugee policy, expanding border controls and accelerating the return of rejected asylum seekers.