Angela Merkel is losing her established reputation. More and more Germans express discontent with overly soft migrant policy carried out by the government. A politician of such a high rank should not show weakness because any weakness lowers Merkel’s influence both within the country and in the world. Negative remarks of so-called “Russian Germans” about the Chancellor became a wake-up call.
Independent observers scrutinized sentiment in one of the most stable emigrant groups, which includes Germans and their relatives who returned to the motherland from the former Soviet Union. Around 2.5 million people make up this group. During quite a long time, Russian Germans supported Angela Merkel’s conservatives, but the recent situation with a consistent refugee inflow made them doubt the Chancellor’s policy and competence.
Sergey Lagodinsky, an analyst at the Heinrich-Böll Foundation research institute and a former Soviet immigrant, said: “The Russian Germans voted CDU because of Kohl. Now their trust has declined because of Merkel and her refugee policy. More and more will vote for the AfD [Alternative for Germany party].”
