Merkel defends refugee policy despite political consequences

German Chancellor Angela Merkel with refugee college students — (Image credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview published Sunday that she does not regret her decision to welcome hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany in the past two years despite its negative consequences for her own political fortunes.

"I'd make all the important decisions of 2015 the same way again," Merkel said. "It was an extraordinary situation, and I made my decision based on what I thought was right from a political and humanitarian standpoint."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.