News / Germany

German Chancellor Merkel’s popularity plunges ‘over refugee policy’

Sunday, 28 August 2016 9:03 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 28 August 2016 9:11 AM ]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s domestic popularity has further declined apparently because of her liberal attitude toward the entry of refugees into Germany.

A poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper showed on Sunday that 50 percent of Germans are now against Merkel remaining in power.

Half of the 501 people questioned in the Emnid poll for the newspaper were against Merkel staying in office for a fourth term after the 2017 election.

Only 42 percent wanted her to remain.

In November, the last time Bild am Sonntag commissioned a survey on the issue, 45 percent had wanted Merkel to remain at the helm of the country and 48 percent wanted her to leave.

The number shows a 5-6 percent change of heart among the Germans in the past nine months.

The paper linked Merkel’s so-called open-door refugee policy, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere into Germany, to the alteration in the chancellor’s popularity.

This photo, taken on January 27, 2016, shows refugees lining up next to a tent at the State Office of Health and Social Affairs (LAGeSo) in Berlin, Germany.

The head of Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Frank-Juergen Weise, earlier told the newspaper that he expects a maximum of 300,000 refugees to arrive in Germany this year.

Merkel, asked about her plans for the 2017 election in an interview with regional newspapers published on Tuesday, said, “I will comment on that at the appropriate time. I’m sticking to that.”

Her policies toward the refugees has angered a section of the German society, who link recent acts of terror in the country to the asylum-seekers arriving in search of a better life.

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