She said the attackers “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need. We firmly reject this”.
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In July, young men attacked Germany four times over the course of seven days.
“I believe that we are in a struggle…in a war against [Islamic State] – that’s indisputable”, she said yesterday.
On the same day, another alleged Syrian refugee attacked several people with a long knife in a town near Stuttgart, killing one person and injuring two others.
12 people were injured this week, 3 of them severely, in a terror attack that took place in the city of Ansbach in Bavaria, Germany, after a 27-year-old Syrian who was denied refugee status committed a suicide attack with an explosive device in his backpack.
Merkel called the attacks “shocking, aggrieving, and also depressing”, but said Germany will continue to welcome with open arms the flood of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa pouring into Europe.
Mrs Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to hold the news conference in Berlin, said the asylum seekers who had carried out the attacks had “shamed the country that welcomed them”.
While a broad swathe of the political establishment and media have responded with unity in the wake of the attacks, some legislators in Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc, as well as politicians from the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD), have revived criticism that Merkel has invited a security threat with her accommodating refugee policy. Three of the four attackers were refugees, two had connections with the Islamic State. “We unfortunately have to accept that many Islamist fighters from Europe have gone to Syria”.
Dr Merkel vowed to “redouble efforts” to deport failed asylum seekers and proposed an information security agency to decode encrypted communications used to plan attacks.
She said she recognised how fearful people were about their personal safety.
“Fear can not be the guide for political action”, Ms Merkel said.
“I am just as convinced today as I was before that we can do it – we can live up to our historical responsibility”, Merkel said, reiterating her mantra that Germany can integrate the 1.1 million refugees who arrived in the country in 2015.
On Thursday Merkel rebuffed such rhetoric.
Is not planning to change her policy.
Germany was reeling after a spate of violent attacks which claimed over 10 lives in the past week.
“Taboos of civilisation are being broken”, she said.
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When asked why there had been such a delay and why she hadn’t visited the site of this or any other attack, Merkel maintained that she had acted correctly. Mrs. Merkel & Co.: WE can not make it! “They see hatred and fear between religions”.
