German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended her government's handling of the refugee crisis, but said the poor election result showed there was work to be done to win back voter confidence.

"I am very unsatisfied with the outcome of the election," Merkel told reporters on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in China. "Obviously it has something to do with the refugee question. But I nevertheless believe the decisions made were right and we have to continue to work on them."

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was relegated to third place behind the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in weekend polls in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The CDU garnered 19 percent of the vote - its worst ever score in the ex-communist state, which is also where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency.

The AfD managed to draw supporters from across the spectrum to finish in second place with 20.8 percent of the vote. The CDU's coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), remained the strongest party with 30.6 percent, but it too lost part of its voter base to the AfD.

Watch video 01:47 Chancellor Merkel on election setback

'Work to be done'

Merkel told reporters that, as chancellor and CDU party chief, "of course I am also responsible," but she insisted that opening Germany's borders to more than 1 million asylum seekers in 2015 was the right thing to do.

She added that the numbers of refugees entering the country had since declined, and that the government was working to integrate the migrants already in Germany. "There is much to be done to win back trust, and the topic of integration will play a huge role, as well the repatriation of those who don't gain residency rights," Merkel said.

The right-wing AfD has enjoyed a surge in support among voters concerned about the influx of migrants to Europe over the past year. Despite being only three years old, the party is already represented in nine out of Germany's 16 regional parliaments.

Leif-Erik Holm, who heads the AfD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said the election result should act as a warning to the government to rethink its refugee policies and that "today could mark the beginning of the end of the chancellery of Angela Merkel."

The Sunday poll was the first of five regional votes before a national election due to take place next September.

nm/rc (AP, dpa, Reuters, AFP)</s>Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel hit back at critics of her open-door migrant policy on Wednesday after her conservative CDU party was humiliated in a regional vote, urging all parties to fight the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) with facts.

In a combative speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Ms Merkel directly addressed the outcome of Sunday’s election in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where the AfD pushed her Christian Democrats into third place.

“All of us should realise the AfD is a challenge not only for the Christian Democrats ... but that they are a challenge for everyone in this house,” she said, suggesting that the AfD’s anti-immigration policies were a threat to the values of society.

In the weekend vote, the AfD, which has fed on fears about the influx of around a million migrants to Germany last year, stole voters from all parties and mobilised many people who had previously not voted. It is now represented in nine of Germany’s 16 states and looks poised to enter the Bundestag next year.

Ms Merkel, who is expected to stand for a fourth term in next year’s federal election, said much had already been achieved since the height of the migrant crisis a year ago.

“We have behind us a year full of decisions ... to reduce the number of migrants,” she said. She added her government had taken steps to help local authorities pay for refugees, passed an integration law and accelerated repatriations of migrants denied asylum and boosted security.

“The situation today is much better than it was a year ago. But there is still much to do,” she said.

“Change is not a bad thing ... Germany will remain Germany with everything that we love and treasure,” she said.

In a swipe at her conservative partners in Bavaria who have criticised her for failing to respond to voters’ worries about migrants, she said politicians should tone down their rhetoric.

If parties tried to win a quick advantage after “a black eye” from a regional election, “the winners will be those who reach for slogans and seemingly simple answers,” she said.

Ms Merkel said politicians must learn the lessons by taking peoples’ worries seriously and explaining the facts.

“I am sure that if we stick to the truth, we will win back what we need – peoples’ trust,” she said.

The AfD is also expected to perform well in an election in the city of Berlin on September 18th. An Insa poll on Tuesday put them at 15 per cent nationally, compared to 30.5 per cent for Ms Merkel’s conservative bloc which shares power with the Social Democrats.

Ms Merkel also defended the EU’s migrant deal with Turkey and her relationship with Ankara. Critics have accused the chancellor of cosying up to Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan despite his patchy human rights record, especially after a July coup attempt.

“The deal with Turkey is a model for further similar agreements,” she said, naming Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.</s>Even a month ago, it seemed merely a matter of time before Angela Merkel announced she was running for a fourth term in next year’s election. But after her party’s humiliating defeat in a regional election in the north east, which was seen by many as a damning indictment of her management of the refugee crisis, things are suddenly a lot less clear.

It is important to put Sunday’s result in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – where Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and rightwing populists Alternative für Deutschland – into perspective. In the power dynamics of German federal politics, “Meck-Pomm” is a sparsely populated, relatively unimportant state, home to only 2 per cent of the overall population.

A deep-dive into the final result reveals the Social Democrats, who came out top, actually lost a higher share of support than Merkel’s party, as did left wing Die Linke. The municipalities that tacked overwhelmingly to the right were all on the Polish border, while the western half of the state, where wages are higher due to the proximity of wealthy Hamburg, stuck to the centrist parties.

On top of all this, in a state where voters have historically had less of a problem casting their vote for far-right parties, almost 70 per cent of voters opted for parties that had backed the chancellor during the refugee crisis.

Süddeutsche Zeitung called for the result, which was described as a debacle for Merkel by many, to be considered in light of these factors. “Modern German democracy has survived several supposed nightmares,” it wrote. “The AfD likes to spread fear. We don’t have [to] automatically allow ourselves to be infected.”

Sometimes, however, symbolism can trump psephological nuance. Coming exactly a year after the German government decided to keep open its borders to thousands of refugees stranded in Budapest, and taking place in the state of Merkel’s own constituency, the election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has several troubling implications for the chancellor.

Merkel’s CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, had traditionally always ensured there was no room on the right of the political spectrum for any other party. That it has been outflanked by the AfD is seen by many as complacency with potentially historic consequences.

Figures on the right of the CDU, such as the popular outgoing MP Wolfgang Bosbach and finance ministry deputy Jens Spahn, maintain that while Merkel made the right call on refugees last September, she should have been quicker to clarify that Germany’s open borders were a temporary emergency measure.

This analysis glosses over the situation on Germany’s southern borders, where by gradually restricting the list of countries who can apply for asylum, Berlin has quietly shifted some of the burden of unwanted migration to Austria.

Yet Sunday’s election has shown that even in a state like Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, largely insulated from the refugee crisis and whose CDU-run interior ministry is known for efficient asylum processing, many voters are unwilling to forget about the temporary loss of political control personified by the chancellor.

That 20.8 per cent of the vote went for the AfD, Die Welt newspaper wrote on Monday, “makes it clear that the ghosts of the past have nowhere near been banished… The attempt to historicise the refugee crisis, as many speeches at the start of the election campaign in early July implied, fails to register with the electorate. On the refugee question, it is key to answer what lies ahead. But that alone is not enough. It will also be about assessing and engaging with the decisions of the past.”

After more than a decade at the top of German politics, Merkel has successfully weathered crisis after crisis by gently applying the brakes when others would have stepped on the gas, containing conflicts by pragmatic compromise rather than dramatic intervention.

The metaphor frequently employed – as the chancellor did after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union – was of limiting the “centrifugal forces” inherent in a crisis. That is precisely why the turbulent weeks of September last year, when the German state seemed to have temporarily lost control of the political situation in Europe, has done such lasting damage to her appeal.

If the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s election is anything to go by, more and more German politicians will try to make the refugee issue central to Merkel’s persona – with unknowable consequences for a putative fourth term bid.

The CSU has – unusually – said it would not confirm its backing of the CDU’s candidate (presumably Merkel) until next spring. According to a poll published last Friday, just 44 per cent of the German public believed Merkel would win a fourth term; though tellingly, none of her potential rivals, in her own party or the opposition, scored any better.

Even the broadly liberal news weekly Der Spiegel, often a staunch defender of the chancellor’s course throughout the crisis, is suggesting that Merkel may want to “do a Schweini”. The footballer Bastian Schweinsteiger recently took his bow from a glittering international career in a tearful testimonial match, during which the crowds chanted the Germany captain’s name.

“If he had stayed longer, he would have done neither himself nor his country a favour.” Maybe, the magazine wrote in an editorial, the time had come for the chancellor to learn a lesson from her favourite footballer.</s>(CNN) Could the success of a far-right party in Germany's local elections be a harbinger of things to come?

The Sunday contest was viewed by many as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel's immigration policy, and her party suffered a significant defeat on her home turf.

Merkel admitted Monday that decisions on immigration played a role in the result, but insisted that she has made the right ones.

Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, defeated the Christian Democratic Union -- Merkel's party -- in local elections in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, coming in second behind the Social Democratic Party, according to exit polls.

AfD was only formally founded in April 2013, yet it defeated the CDU in the German chancellor's home state.

Although AfD has performed strongly in several other regional elections, most notably coming in second with 24% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in March, it's an unprecedented moment in modern German politics that the CDU is set to finish behind a party so far to its right on most issues.

The preliminary results indicate the Social Democratic Party won 30.6%, Alternative für Deutschland took 20.8% and the Christian Democratic Union got 19%.

In an interview with CNN Monday, AfD party leader Frauke Petry interpreted the party's success in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a personal defeat for Merkel.

Petry suggested that with her party gaining across the country, the Christian Democratic Union is "falling apart" and said it's time for Germany to close its borders.

"We see the political climate changes towards AfD and against the established parties, especially the Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel's party -- 21 percent in the northeast of Germany is an absolutely brilliant result," Petry told CNN.

"The CDU is falling apart, but not only up there," she added. "We see that in many regions of Germany where the CDU bases, the party bases, don't agree with Merkel's policy anymore.

"We want that the German government closes German borders to illegal migration... We don't want a new border in Germany. But we need controlled borders. We need a change of legislation on a German level, but also an EU level, to avoid illegal migration."

Merkel has stood firm on Germany's position of accepting nearly all asylum seekers found to be legitimate refugees. Germany took in more than 1 million refugees in 2015, making it the most open country in Europe to asylum seekers.

Merkel admits there's a lot to do

Responding to the preliminary results from the weekend vote, Merkel -- who is in China at the G20 summit -- told reporters she was "dissatisfied with the outcome of the elections."

She admitted that "many people do not have our confidence regarding the refugee question."

After a series of terrorist attacks in July, Merkel refused to back down on her immigration policy, which she has termed a moral responsibility, especially to people fleeing the horror of civil war in Syria.

Monday the Chancellor insisted the decisions made on how to handle the refugee crises were correct, but acknowledged: "We still have to do a lot to regain our (party's) confidence."

Not a disaster, but of concern

Experts say the results don't mean there's a looming disaster for Merkel in next year's election if she chooses to run -- the AfD would likely have trouble forming a coalition with more traditional political parties -- but they do signal some concerns for Merkel.

Politico's senior European Union correspondent, Ryan Heath, said analysts believe Merkel still has an overwhelming likelihood of winning the national elections in 2017. However, these predictions are based largely on the national weakness of the Social Democrats, currently the junior partner in the coalition government.

Rise of the right

Formally founded in April 2013, AfD was set up by academics disgruntled by Merkel's eurozone crisis management -- most notably the Greek bailouts. However, AfD mutated into a more nationalist party that strongly opposed rising immigration levels -- particularly of people from Muslim countries.</s>BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel took responsibility for her party’s election defeat in the German state where she has her political base, but strongly defended her migrant policy on Monday even as she vowed to win back voters’ trust.

A year before an expected national election, a nationalist, anti-immigration party’s second-place finish Sunday ahead of Merkel’s conservatives was a jolt that will likely increase tensions in Germany’s governing coalition. However, the result didn’t pose any immediate threat to Merkel, 62, Germany’s leader since 2005.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union finished third in the election for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s state legislature, behind the three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD. It was held exactly a year after she decided to let in migrants stuck in Hungary, triggering the peak of last year’s influx. Merkel conceded the outcome was “almost entirely about federal political issues.”

The center-left Social Democrats, Merkel’s partners in Germany’s national government, remained the strongest party in Mecklenburg. They have led the regional government for a decade with the CDU as junior partner, a coalition they can continue if they choose.

The region is sparsely populated, but the vote was symbolically significant because Merkel’s parliamentary constituency is there. It was the first of five regional ballots before a national election a year away. The next is Sept. 18 in Berlin, where local issues are likely to feature more strongly.

Mecklenburg is home to few foreigners, but Merkel acknowledged that migrant policy was a dominant theme.

New arrivals have slowed drastically after more than 1 million people were registered as asylum-seekers in 2015, and asylum policies have been tightened. Still, New Year’s Eve robberies and sexual assaults blamed largely on foreigners, and two attacks in July carried out by asylum-seekers and claimed by the Islamic State group, have fed tensions.

“We must all consider how we can now win back trust, me first and foremost,” Merkel told reporters on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China.

“I am the party leader, I am the chancellor — you can’t separate those in people’s eyes, so I am of course responsible too” for the result, Merkel said. “However, I believe the decisions that have been made were right, and now we must continue working.”

She added that “the issue of integration will play a huge role in that, and the question of the repatriation of refugees who have no residence permit here.”

Merkel’s critics have faulted her for sticking to her mantra that “we will manage” the refugee crisis. Sunday’s result may make it tougher to smooth over a dispute with the Christian Social Union, her conservative Union bloc’s Bavarian arm, which criticized her welcoming approach from the start and wants an annual migrant cap.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s governor, told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the situation for the conservatives is “highly threatening.” He was quoted as complaining that his “repeated demand for a change of course” on migrant policy hadn’t been heeded and said Sunday’s “disastrous” result was a consequence.

Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ leader and a likely challenger to Merkel next year, underlined his party’s increasing distance from the chancellor as it eyes the national election. He accused her conservatives of being too slow to respond to the migrant crisis.

“We have wasted a great deal of time with unnecessary arguments,” he said, arguing that Merkel had been guilty of “simply repeating ‘we will manage it’ without doing it as well.”

Although Merkel already adjusted migrant policies over the past year, she can’t make a clean break from her overall approach because “that wouldn’t be credible,” political science professor Klaus Schroeder told N24 television. “So the quarrels between the CDU and CSU will continue, and the Social Democrats will turn even more strongly against the Union to have a chance in the national election campaign.”

Merkel’s bloc leads national polls, although her own popularity ratings have dropped from stellar to respectable. She hasn’t yet declared whether she will seek a fourth term next year, but there’s no obvious alternative.

AfD polls between 11 and 14 percent nationally and appears strongest in the ex-communist east.

It basked Monday in its latest success. Leader Frauke Petry attacked Merkel’s party for saying that “they haven’t done anything wrong. They just didn’t explain their policies.”

“This ignorance is exemplary,” she said. “It is not just ignorance. What we see here is the continuing arrogance of power.”

Petry, whose party has no prospect of going into government in the foreseeable future, complained that its rivals “still think they can label AfD as an undemocratic party.”

On Sunday, AfD won support from across the spectrum to take 20.8 percent of votes, its second-best result yet. That helped push the far-right National Democratic Party out of its last state legislature.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews voiced satisfaction at that development, but also concern about AfD.

AfD “was unfortunately successful with its tactic of feeding prejudice against minorities and offering slogans instead of solutions,” said the council’s head, Josef Schuster.

“Apparently it is not clear to many voters, or they accept this, that AfD doesn’t distance itself clearly from the far-right spectrum either in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or nationally.”</s>Merkel: Migrant situation in Germany 'many times better'

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday defended her government's handling of the flood of migrants that crossed into Germany last year, but conceded that more still needs to be done and that concerns that have led to increasing support for an anti-immigrant nationalist party need to be taken seriously.

Merkel told lawmakers that since she addressed them at this time last year, Germany has managed to come a long way in dealing with the hundreds of thousands of migrants that flooded in to the country.

"The situation is many times better than a year ago, but there remains a lot to do," she said.

On the weekend, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union suffered an embarrassing election performance in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency, when it was beaten into third place by the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, known as AfD.

The state is home to few migrants, but Merkel after the election conceded that the result was more about dissatisfaction with national issues rather than local matters.

She told Parliament, where AfD is not represented, that the election was a "black eye" inflicted by "those who rely on slogans and seemingly simple answers." She said that voters' concerns "whether founded or unfounded, should be taken seriously" by "all of us in this house," noting that the party had taken away support from all other main parties.

"I am quite sure that if we resist this and stick to the truth, then we will win," she said. "And that way we will win back the most important thing that we need — the trust of the people."

In the past year, Merkel said, Germany has implemented policies speeding up integration measures for migrants with good prospects of staying, increased school funding to help their educations, and worked with cities and states to find solutions to local problems.

Merkel also stressed that the country managed to drastically reduce the influx of new migrants coming to Germany.

But she said the country still needs to improve the mechanism for quickly processing and returning home migrants who have little chance of being given asylum.

She said Germany has also beefed up police and security forces to fight terrorism, but emphasized that "terrorism is not a new problem that came here with the refugees."

"We serve our country in these times of globalization best if we are guided by our values of freedom, security, justice and solidarity," she said.</s>BERLIN (AP) — A senior aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging unity in the German leader's conservative bloc amid recriminations over an embarrassing state election performance.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union was beaten into third place by the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany in Sunday's vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency.

The Bavarian branch of Merkel's Union bloc, the Christian Social Union, has long criticized her approach to the migrant crisis. CSU leader Horst Seehofer complained Monday his "repeated demand for a change of course" wasn't heeded and sought a "clarification" of policies by October.

FILE - In this Oct. 7, 2011 file picture Bavarian State Governor and Chairman of German Christian Social Union party, CSU, Horst Seehofer, looks on during a party convention of the German Christian Social Union, CSU, in Nuremberg, southern Germany. A senior aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging unity in the German leader¿s conservative bloc amid recriminations over an embarrassing state election performance. The Bavarian branch of Merkel¿s Union bloc, the Christian Social Union, has long criticized her approach to the migrant crisis. CSU leader Horst Seehofer complained Monday Sept. 6, 2016 his "repeated demand for a change of course" wasn¿t heeded and sought a ¿clarification¿ of policies by October. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader,file)

CDU general secretary Peter Tauber pointed to forthcoming votes including a state election in Berlin Sept. 18. He said Tuesday: "Our supporters and members ... expect one thing above all of the Union: unity."</s>BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The leader of the state of Bavaria warned German conservatives on Tuesday that they faced an "extremely threatening" situation after a "disastrous" state election on Sunday which he blamed squarely on Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy.

Exposing deep rifts within Chancellor Merkel's conservative bloc, Horst Seehofer, the combative premier of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), said the chancellor had failed to respond to voters' worries about the migrant crisis.

"The situation for the conservatives is extremely threatening," Seehofer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, adding voters were fed up with "Berlin politics".

Merkel's conservatives suffered heavy losses in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday, coming third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and, more surprisingly, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

With a federal election just a year away, Merkel's ratings have fallen to a five-year low since opening German borders to about a million migrants last year and then championing a disputed EU-Turkey deal to solve the crisis.

Amid the post-election row, Seehofer has also cancelled a trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said the state election disaster was a result of failing to draw the right conclusions after losses in other regional votes this year. Some CSU members have renewed calls for Merkel to put a limit on the number of migrants entering Germany.

The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel's right-left coalition, have seized on speculation about whether she may decide not to run in next year's election, although there are no obvious rival conservative candidates.

Deputy SPD chairman, Ralf Stegner, told Spiegel Online: "Mrs Merkel has clearly passed her zenith. The question is whether she still has her party behind her."

Merkel, chancellor for nearly 11 years, on Monday took responsibility for the state election result but stood by her migrant policy.. She wants the blessing of Seehofer's CSU before declaring she will stand for the chancellorship again.

With her party facing losses in a state election in the city of Berlin in two weeks, an INSA poll in Bild on Tuesday showed the conservative bloc unchanged on 30.5 percent at a national level, with the AfD up half a percentage point at 15 percent.

"Merkel can only hope that sanity - her sanity - works with voters. It's not certain," wrote top-selling Bild in an editorial. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Catherine Evans)</s>BERLIN, Sept 6 (Reuters) - The leader of the state of Bavaria warned German conservatives on Tuesday that they faced an "extremely threatening" situation after a "disastrous" state election on Sunday which he blamed squarely on Angela Merkel's open-door migrant policy.

Exposing deep rifts within Chancellor Merkel's conservative bloc, Horst Seehofer, the combative premier of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), said the chancellor had failed to respond to voters' worries about the migrant crisis.

"The situation for the conservatives is extremely threatening," Seehofer told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, adding voters were fed up with "Berlin politics".

Merkel's conservatives suffered heavy losses in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday, coming third behind the centre-left Social Democrats and, more surprisingly, the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Thorbjorn Jagland, general secretary of the Council of Europe rights body, told a conference hosted by the foreign ministry that he was shocked about the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric used by AfD during the German election.

He said statements like "Islam has no place in Europe" were "the beginning of a very, very dangerous development" that contained echoes of the anti-Semitic sentiment of the last century and suggested some effort to push out millions of Muslims who had been living in Europe for years.

"What was (considered) extreme five years ago has become more mainstream," he said. "We have had it in the past. We should not allow it to develop again."

With a federal election just a year away, Merkel's ratings have fallen to a five-year low since opening German borders to about a million migrants last year and then championing a disputed EU-Turkey deal to solve the crisis.

Amid the post-election row, Seehofer has also cancelled a trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He said the state election disaster was a result of failing to draw the right conclusions after losses in other regional votes this year. Some CSU members have renewed calls for Merkel to put a limit on the number of migrants entering Germany.

The Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Merkel's right-left coalition, have seized on speculation about whether she may decide not to run in next year's election, although there are no obvious rival conservative candidates.

Deputy SPD chairman, Ralf Stegner, told Spiegel Online: "Mrs Merkel has clearly passed her zenith. The question is whether she still has her party behind her."

Merkel, chancellor for nearly 11 years, on Monday took responsibility for the state election result but stood by her migrant policy.. She wants the blessing of Seehofer's CSU before declaring she will stand for the chancellorship again.

With her party facing losses in a state election in the city of Berlin in two weeks, an INSA poll in Bild on Tuesday showed the conservative bloc unchanged on 30.5 percent at a national level, with the AfD up half a percentage point at 15 percent.

"Merkel can only hope that sanity - her sanity - works with voters. It's not certain," wrote top-selling Bild in an editorial. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Catherine Evans and Hugh Lawson)</s>Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday vowed to continue efforts to strengthen security at home and speed up repatriations of migrants who were denied asylum in Germany, but insisted the overall situation was much better now than a year ago.

Merkel, whose conservative party lost significant ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a regional election on Sunday, struck a defiant tone in a speech to parliament, denying that the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants would cut benefits for Germans as some have feared.

She also defended her handling of German-Turkish relations and said a European Union deal with Ankara to curb the flow of migrants was necessary and could serve as a model for agreements with other countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends her stance regarding the European migrant crisis despite her party losing in the key election.