Angela Merkel is seven months old and currently lives in a refugee camp in Hanover, with about 700 other migrants from 33 countries. Her mother, 26-year-old Ghanaian Ophelya Adé, arrived in Germany this year, after crossing the Mediterranean while heavily pregnant. In an interview with Der Spiegel, she said she named her daughter after the German chancellor because: “I was so grateful, so relieved that Angela Merkel is accepting us, so impressed with what this woman is achieving here.”
Heartfelt tributes such as these are not exceptional among the migrant communities stationed on Europe’s borders: barely a month after Germany’s intransigence over Greek debt saw protesters likening her to Hitler, Merkel is suddenly finding herself at the receiving end of a virtual love-in on social media.
On Facebook, there are pages with titles such as “Mama Merkel, Mother of the Outcasts”, and Syrians are sharing images of the chancellor with slogans such as “Wir lieben dich” (“We love you”) or “Compassionate mother”.
Some posts carry the hashtag #Merkel_TheEthiopian, a reference to the story of Ashama ibn Abjar, a benign Christian ruler who gave shelter to Muslim refugees in the kingdom of Axum (now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea) at the time of Muhammad. Other images are photoshopped to contrast the German politician’s compassion with the perceived heartlessness of Arab leaders.
In Syria, since the start of the civil war, Germany has enjoyed a broadly sympathetic reputation for offering the country’s refugees better asylum conditions than other EU states, bar Sweden. In the 12-month period to June this year, the country received 296,710 applications for asylum. But the recent spike in pro-Merkel outpourings has been triggered by Germany’s decision to make use of the “sovereignty clause” of the Dublin convention, allowing Syrian refugees to apply for asylum in Germany rather than being deported back to the EU country where they first arrived.
Monzer, a Syrian who arrived in Germany this week after being fingerprinted elsewhere in Europe, told the Guardian: “Merkel is a respectable woman with humane values and very considerate. She is a mother to Syrians.” Hashem Alsouki, a Syrian applying for asylum in Sweden, said: “We consider Merkel better than any other world ruler. She’s the saviour of Syria’s children from the hell of war and extremism. All Syrians love Merkel and her courage.”
In Germany itself, Merkel’s stance on the refugee crisis has seen her coming under fire from both the left and the right, with rightwing protesters denouncing her as a Volksverräterin, a “betrayer of the people”, and many others accusing her of being slow to condemn arson attacks on refugee shelters. Her critics on both ends of the political spectrum will be scratching their heads over TV images of refugees in Budapest chanting: “Germany! Germany!”
