MERKEL MUST GO! Germany divided as angry protest launched at under-fire leader

Activists chanted “Get lost!” and “Merkel must go!” as Mrs Merkel flew into the eastern city of Dresden for talks with regional members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The demonstration was organised by the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement in protest at Mrs Merkel’s decision in 2015 to leave German borders open to more than a million refugees, mainly from Muslim countries.

Many Germans blamed an influx of migrants for an increase in street crime and sexual assaults against women and the mob which greeted her at Dresden held up banners including one reading: “Girls die, Mrs Merkel”.

The open-door migrant policy sparked a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and helped propel the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party into parliament in national elections last year.

The Chancellor has repeatedly defended her decision as a humanitarian necessity but has since vowed to prevent a repeat of such a situation and to battle the root causes of migration into Europe.

Speaking after her meeting with party members, she said she was aware that her stance on refugees had unsettled voters and raised concerns about the state’s ability to act and stay in control.

She said: “I made clear that we have a situation now where not all problems have been solved, especially deportations are still a big problem.

“The federal government will assume more responsibility here, especially by helping to procure the needed documents.”

Local authorities say they often struggle to deport rejected asylum seekers because they have no passports and due to the reluctance of foreign countries to issue provisional identification documents for them.

There were also counter-protesters in the vicinity but no clashes or other incidents had been reported so far, a police spokesman said. He declined to estimate the number of protesters.

Saxony will vote for a new state parliament in September 2019 and polls suggest the AfD could become the second-strongest party, with the CDU likely to come in first.

Approval for Mrs Merkel’s CDU and sister party Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) has plunged to its lowest level since 2006, according to an Emnid poll.

Support for Ms Merkel’s coalition dropped to just 29 per cent, down from 33 per cent in last September’s election.

Mrs Merkel’s conservatives have been embroiled in an internal dispute over whether to turn back migrants at the German border who have registered elsewhere in the European Union.

The issue divided longtime conservative allies and posed the most serious challenge yet to Mrs Merkel’s leadership in Germany.

She won a fourth term in office in last year’s elections but struggled to put a coalition government together and has since seen her grip on power significantly weakened.