German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is up for reelection next month to become Germany’s longest serving chancellor has once again defended her open door policies and she went further to say that she would have taken the decisions the same way over the refugee crisis that has dogged European unity since 2015. Speaking to Die Welt daily’s she said, “I’d make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again…..I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint”.
Her comments came despite the fact that millions of refugees arriving in Germany since 2015 have led to major divisions in German society over the issue and led to the rise of the anti-immigrant party, Alternate for Deutschland (AfD). Since 2015, when Merkel introduced her open-door policy, around 1 million asylum-seekers have arrived in Germany, putting a strain on its social welfare system and sparking a rise in anti-migrant sentiment as well as opening deep rifts within German society. Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor in the September 24 election, is often confronted by angry protesters during campaign speeches and the latest happened for a second time in less than a week. On Saturday, a crowd of protesters was yelling and whistling at her during the 30-minute speech in Quedlinburg, a town in Saxony-Anhalt. The demonstrators chanted, “Liar, liar,” and “Merkel must go.” A similar incident took place at her previous rally in the town of Annaberg-Buchholz, where protesters held banners calling her “Traitor” and “Not my chancellor.” In both cases, the demonstrators expressed their discontent with Merkel’s refugee policy, which they said had failed.
However, the betting market remains confident that Chancellor Merkel’s party the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and her sister party, Christian Social Union (CSU) will be the biggest in next month’s election. The market is currently pricing 88-92 percent chance that Merkel will be reelected as the chancellor.
