Merkel's popularity plunges in wake of attacks

Public support for Angela Merkel has plummeted, mainly over the Chancellor's refugee policy in the wake of a series of attacks in Germany, according to a poll published on Thursday (4th August 2016).

Forty-seven percent of the 1,000 people who took part in the poll by the ARD TV station said they were satisfied with Merkel's work, 12 points down from her July rating.

It was Merkel's second worst poll score since she was reelected in 2013. In February 2016, 46 percent of respondents gave favourable opinions.

Germany's first attacks claimed by the group Isis took place in July: a 17-year-old Afghan refugee attacked a family on a regional train near Würzburg with an axe, and later a 27-year-old Syrian refugee blew himself up in Ansbach.

A few days after the attacks, Merkel continued to defend her migration policy, repeating the "We can do it" slogan she first used in the summer of 2015. That year Germany welcomed more than a million migrants.

Read more on The Local Germany:
http://www.thelocal.de/20160805/merkels-popularity-plunges-in-wake-of-attacks

And see the full poll results (in German):
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/deutschlandtrend/