What really astonishes me is that there are still any Germans at all who will vote for her: Europe’s migrant crisis dims once unassailable Merkel’s aura.

Lectured by the president of tiny Macedonia. Challenged at EU summits. Defied by supposed allies in Austria and Bavaria.
Such is the lot these days of Europe’s most powerful leader, Angela Merkel. The once-unassailable force in Brussels and Germany is now being worn down by an epic migration crisis.

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For Ms Merkel, no crisis has been as personal, as divisive at home or as damaging to her core European alliances. On Sunday, voters will have the opportunity to render their verdict on her handling of it as they go to the polls in three regions.

As this week’s dramatic Brussels summit made clear, Ms Merkel is still doggedly fighting for a pan-European plan in which EU borders would remain open, with inflows of refugees controlled directly from Turkey.

Economic growth isn’t everything. Homeland and history are much much more. These socialists and libertarians are merely blind to the future they are creating, like those communist idiots who were shot in the Lubyanka in the back of the neck.