The German Chancellor said she still backed her decision to allow more than one million migrants to enter Germany since 2015, despite coming under fire for the so-called open doors policy and being relentlessly heckled at recent election events.
On the campaign trail Angela Merkel has been booed by protestors furious at her decision to completely open Germany’s borders during the migrant crisis.
But a defiant Mrs Merkel, who hopes to secure a record fourth term, says she would do the same again.
And she risked further outrage by announcing she will continue to push for the fair distribution of migrants across Europe rather than letting Italy and Greece shoulder the load purely “because of their location”.
Today she struck a defiant tone as she vowed she would do things the “same way again” if she could turn back time.
In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper Mrs Merkel attacked countries which have not followed Germany’s open-door policy.
Mrs Merkel said: “I’d make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again. It was an extraordinary situation and I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint.
“Those kinds of extraordinary situations happen every once in a while in a country’s history. The head of government has to act and I did.”
She said more countries should help take in migrants and said it was unfair Italy and Greece were being hit the hardest simply “because of their geography”.
Mrs Merkel said: “That some countries refuse to accept any refugees is not on. That contradicts the spirit of Europe. We’ll overcome that. It will take time and patience but we will succeed.”
Her decision to open the borders contributed to a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which pollsters say could win up to 10 per cent in the September election.
Mrs Merkel has had to contend with loud and sustained heckling from demonstrators strongly opposed to her migrant policies so far on the campaign trail.
The volume and intensity of the protests have been especially strong in her home region in formerly communist eastern Germany. But the 63-year-old Chancellor said she would not be kept away from areas where animosity towards her runs high.
She said: “We’re a democracy and everyone can freely express themselves in public the way they want. It’s important that we don’t go out of our way to avoid certain areas only because there are a bunch of people screaming.”
Support for Mrs Merkel and her party has recovered somewhat after the influx of refugees slowed in 2016 to 280,000 and fell even further to about 106,000 in the first seven months of this year.
Four weeks before the September 24 election, an Emnid opinion poll on Sunday showed Mrs Merkel’s conservatives would win 38 per cent, or 15 points ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). That is up from 32 per cent in February but well below the 41.5 per cent her party won in the last election in 2013.