Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany's doors to a million refugees and migrants last year — three times as many as the rest of the European Union put together. Critics in Germany predicted a popular backlash, and warned that even her own Christian Democratic Party (CDU) would turn against her.
In the case of the CDU, at least, they were dead wrong. At the party's annual congress on Dec. 15, Merkel's speech — in which she did not retreat one inch from her frequent assertion that "we can do it" (accept and integrate the refugees) — got a 10-minute standing ovation that brought tears to her eyes.
Despite a dip in the opinion polls, she also still enjoys widespread popular support — or at least she did until the ugly events in the city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.