GETTY Mrs Merkel was praised for opening her country’s doors to over one million refugees

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There could be many more by the new year. On Wednesday Germany announced that one million refugees had come to settle in the country since the beginning of the year. What began as an act of great humanity, borne in part out of Germany’s lingering guilt for the Second World War, has morphed into Merkel’s political suicide, that plunges her future into grave jeopardy. Across the economic powerhouse of the continent the social fabric of society is tearing ever thinner. Though bogus scare stories of migrants raping, abusing, burgling and stealing have proved to be unfounded, their presence has served to trigger the biggest rise in far right support since the 1930s. While the government acknowledged the one million mark had been hit, the truth is that the real figure could be even higher. It takes several weeks to process each individual, meaning that the 200,000 who came into the country in November alone may not be included in the statistics.

Nor are the unregistered, those who wandered through the porous borders of a divided Europe to get to their imagined promised land. Next Monday in the southern city of Karlsruhe “Mummy” – as Merkel is often referred to in the German media – will feel the Arctic blast of her party and allies when she attends the annual conference of her conservative CDU party. Never mind that Time magazine has just named her its Person of the Year. For the first time in a decade the most powerful woman in the world knows that she has never been in a tighter spot. To backtrack on her open-door policies would be an admission of failure; to repeat that she is right and everyone else is wrong would be seen as arrogance. Instead she will likely call on countries like Turkey and the Balkans to do more to stem the flow of refugees to give her and fellow Germans muchneeded breathing space. It is ironic, say critics, that Karlsruhe should have been chosen as the venue for the party shindig: the city is also home to Germany’s chief prosecutor who is currently considering a petition signed by hundreds of people asking him to bring criminal charges of treason against her.

AP Angela Merkel was named Person of the Year by Time for her leadership

They cite the chancellor’s decision to open the borders of the nation to all comers in September, since when they claim “an unhindered flow of refugees have poured into Germany”

They cite the chancellor’s decision to open the borders of the nation to all comers in September, since when they claim “an unhindered fl ow of refugees have poured into Germany”. And since, under German law, anyone who attempts to affect change to the German republic or “damage the constitutional order by force or threat of force” is guilty of high treason, they want to see her in the dock. She knows the clock is against her as now in some towns refugees outnumber locals – in Sumte, in the former east, it is by seven to one – and the fuel that this is giving to the ultra-right is alarming. Just four people have been convicted of attacks against 637 asylum centres in Germany in the past two years. Of those attacks, 222 are classified as violent by the government. Since January last year 104 people have been injured in attacks, or smoke inhalation from fi res started at their temporary accommodation. Police have ended 11 per cent of their investigations entirely and admitted they were able to identify suspected perpetrators in only a quarter of cases.

This is despite growing evidence, including boasts on social media, that a network of neo-Nazis lies behind most of the incidents. Police warn of the potential for rightwingers coalescing into terroristtype cells and predict worse violence to come. Security zones have been implemented in some towns around accommodation centres. In Bad Oeynhausen, for example, in the west of the country, the police were called out to 428 incidents involving refugees in October – and 407 of them were to protect the newcomers. In Germany’s most populous state, North RhineWestphalia, a third of all 151 asylum centres virtually have a permanent police presence outside. Violence among the refugees in the reception centres is a growing problem too. “Indeed, an explosive mood is developing in many of the refugee camps across Germany, most of which have become overcrowded. Police situation reports from across the country describe a growing propensity to violence in the hostels,” according to the news magazine Der Spiegel. While most Germans initially backed Merkel’s open-door policy for those fleeing war and persecution the costs – an estimated £7billion and rising – the violence and a general aura that this is all too much has contributed to a growing backlash that is piling pressure on the chancellor and exposing rifts within her conservative alliance.

GETTY Angela Merkel gave a Government declaration prior to the EU summit

Mrs Merkel rules in a coalition government underwritten by the Christian Social Union party in Bavaria – the southern state that has borne the brunt of the migrant influx. There the calls for her to switch course are the loudest. Marku Söder, Bavaria’s finance minister, recently said the coalition between the CDU and its CSU is “in the most difficult situation since 1976” due to the refugee crisis. “Whoever believes it possible to ignore generations of loyal voters puts the structural majority capability of the Union at risk,” Söder warned. He and CSU leader Horst Seehofer believe the chancellor’s policies are paving the way for the rise of the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the right-wing PEGIDA groups which have demonstrated almost weekly since last October. However, Merkel has so far refused to amend her refugee policy, insisting that Germany can take in large numbers of migrants in the years to come. Allies and critics alike say she is ignoring the warning signs of calamity at her peril. Her popularity dipped to its lowest point in four years in October, the clearest signal yet that her mantra: “We can do this” is falling on deaf ears.

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The DeutschlandTrend poll for public broadcaster ARD showed a nine-point plunge in Merkel’s popularity to 54 per cent. While some of her European peers would find such support enviable, it was her worst rating since December 2011. The same survey also showed that 51 per cent – up 13 percentage points in the past month – now say they are scared by the number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany; proof that her fortune and future are tied to a policy opposed by over half her compatriots. Even the country’s largest Muslim organisation has called for limits on refugees. “This upper limit would seem to be at the point of being reached,” said Aiman Mazyek, chairman of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims. “Morally speaking there can’t be an upper limit to how many refugees we take in because of what our constitution says and due to our historical responsibility. But when we talk about our practical ability it’s a different question.” When Mrs Merkel steps up to give her keynote speech next week she will not be appearing as the guardian of German wealth, the saviour of the euro or the protector of Christian family values. She will be reselling a policy that many within and without her own party said should never have been formulated in the first place. How she performs on that day will dictate the rest of hitherto stellar career.