In Munich, a German-Iranian killed nine people before killing himself.
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After a young Afghan man attacked passengers on a train with an axe, a Syrian man killed a woman with a machette and another Syrian man blew himself up in front of a restaurant.
But even some former supporters of the policies have raised questions after four assaults in the span of two weeks – including two involving asylum seekers who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
“We’ll manage it”, the German chancellor said, repeating a phrase – “wir shaffen das” – she famously used last August about her commitment to taking in refugees.
While Merkel has been criticized for the amount of refugees that Germany has taken in, most western countries, including Germany, have taken in a very small percentage of asylum seekers that exist, with many more seeking shelter in poor countries such as Turkey and Lebanon.
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.
Speaking on Thursday, Merkel said that asylum seekers who committed attacks had “shamed the country that welcomed them”, the BBC reported.
Germany’s right-wing political upstart Alternative for Germany (AfD) has seized on the upsurge in violence to accuse Merkel of making the country a target for terrorists.
Even as Germany has avoided large-scale terrorist attacks of the kind that have rocked France, Belgium, the United States and Turkey in recent months, Merkel drew a parallel to warn that Germany is not immune to similar onslaughts.
Mrs Merkel said the terrorists “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need”. “They sow hate and fear between cultures and they sow hate and fear between religions”. Ms Merkel said she has spoken with President Barack Obama about increasing intelligence cooperation – seeking to improve the lines of communication that have been tested since revelations in 2013 that United States intelligence had spied on the chancellor. “We will not change our principles”, Merkel stated. She called it “completely irrelevant” whether the attackers had entered the country before or after the open-door asylum policy took effect in September 2015. “This is our responsibility, I am convinced of that”.
“Germans hit back at Merkels we can make it line by posting statements such as unfortunately we cannot ask the victims of the recent attacks whether they see it exactly the same way“.
That came after PM Theresa May issued a thinly-veiled dig at Germany for not stopping the attacks.
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Last year, the chancellor was mocked online after reducing a Palestinian girl to tears by explaining her policy on asylum and adding that “sometimes politics is hard”.
