Editorial: Angela Merkel's big mistake mars impressive career at top

German Christian Democratic Party, CDU, chairwoman and Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a party's leaders meeting at the headquarters the in Berlin. Photo / AP

Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany since 2005, has been one of the world's most impressive leaders for most of that time. Through the global financial crisis, the troubles of the euro zone and, more recently, Brexit, she has been a sensible, moderating voice.

She made just one major mistake from which she never recovered and it has had an impact on politics around the world.

In the summer of 2015, when Italy and Greece were struggling to cope with refugees crossing the Mediterranean by boat, Merkel said they could come to Germany while their asylum applications were considered. It was a typically pragmatic decision on her part. Fellow states of the European Union were asking for help and it made sense to her to relax the EU rule that refugees should be processed in the country where they arrive.

She cannot not have foreseen how that concession would be received in refugee camps of Turkey and the Middle East.

Within days, thousands of people were setting out on foot from Turkey and pressing at European borders in the Balkans. The television images of overwhelming masses on the roads and barricades unable to contain them captured the attention of Europe and the world, eliciting compassion in some people, alarm in others. The refugees, many of them displaced by the Syrian civil war, awakened a resentment of immigration that had been quietly mounting in Western populations troubled by globalisation and Islamist terrorism.

Donald Trump tapped that fear for his 2016 bid for the US presidency and Brexit that same year was partly a vote against immigration from Europe. In France, Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary and other countries new populist parties opposed open borders, ethnic diversity and cultural tolerance. In Germany, when Merkel's Christian Democrat party was governing in coalition with a smaller party of economic liberals, the antagonism gave rise to a nationalist anti-immigrant party on the right. At the same time, the main centre-left Social Democratic Party had lost support to a new party to its left.

After the election last year, neither major party was able to form a coalition with smaller parties and they reluctantly agreed to a "grand coalition". Those are seldom grand for the parties involved or for decisive government. Merkel's authority was much reduced.

Recent state elections in Hesse and Bavaria have registered further falls in the governing parties' support. Merkel, who had already indicated this five-year term will be her last, announced yesterday she will relinquish her party's leadership next month. It would be a surprise if she remains Chancellor much beyond that.

She may be the last in a succession of long-standing leaders of post-war Germany, before and after its unification. A pity she may be remembered mainly for the decision that has destabilised so much good government worldwide.