Angela Merkel sacrifices her principles to make a migration deal

There was a time not too long ago – less than three years to be exact – when German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at the very top of her game. She dominated German and European politics for over a decade with her clear, effective, but cautious leadership, watching as the German economy solidified its place as Europe’s economic engine. When Merkel decided to open Germany’s doors in August 2015 to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria, she became much more than the steward of Berlin’s economic power – she transformed overnight into the moral beacon of the European continent.

There she was, taking the daring political risk of allowing an unrestricted number of Syrians to cross the German border in order to claim asylum, when others – like Hungary’s Viktor Orban – were concentrating their resources on a slapdash attempt to build walls and fences. As the Guardian newspaper would write in a September 2015 editorial,