Berlin : German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed calls to reverse her welcoming stance toward refugees in the wake of a series of brutal attacks in the country.
Merkel, who interrupted a summer holiday to face the media in Berlin, said the four assaults within a week were “shocking, oppressive and depressing” but not a sign that authorities had lost control.
The German leader said the assailants “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need”. “We firmly reject this,” she said at a wide-ranging news conference. Merkel repeated her rallying cry from last year when she opened the borders to people fleeing war and persecution, many from Syria, which brought nearly 1.1 million migrants and refugees to the country in 2015. “I am still convinced today that ‘we can do it’ — it is our historic duty and this is a historic challenge in times of globalisation,” she said. “We have already achieved very, very much in the last 11 months.”
Merkel was speaking after a axe rampage, a shooting spree, a knife attack and a suicide bombing stunned Germany, leaving 13 dead, including three assailants, and dozens wounded.
