Germany is receiving up to 7,000 people daily, accepted 180,000 people in November alone and is on course to crack the million ceiling – the previous annual forecast – by the end of the week.
Three months ago Merkel insisted Germany “can manage this”. But as temperatures have dropped, with no let-up in arrivals, a chill has spread through her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its coalition partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU), on the front lines of the Balkan route in Bavaria.