A new book by a political journalist says that German leader Angela Merkel was on the verge of closing the borders instead of welcoming refugees, but was persuaded not to out of fear that images of violence would make her government unpopular.
'Driven by Events: Merkels Refugee Policy' by Robin Alexander, a journalist with Die Welt, was published this week. It claims that as late as September 2015, the peak of the migrant influx into Europe, the German chancellor had still not formulated a policy.