News Analysis: Bloody attacks bring Merkel more headache amid criticism of refugee policy

The recent bloody attacks in Germany have given German Chancellor Angela Merkel more headache as she is beleaguered by criticism of her open-door refugee policy.

On Friday, an 18-year-old German-Iranian opened fire at the innocent crowd in a fast food restaurant and in the Olympia shopping center, leaving 10 people dead and injuring 27. Although police said the perpetrator of the shootout has no relation to the Islamic State, the attacker's dual citizenship still aroused some fear.

In the same week, a 17-year-old asylum-seeker from Afghanistan assaulted passengers on a German train with an axe on Monday night. Police reported finding a "hand-painted Islamic State (IS) flag" in the asylum seeker's room.

Germany is known by many as an orderly and disciplined country, and its security capability and investment rank among the top of European countries, said Zhao Chen, chief of the Department of International Relations Studies at the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Germany also maintains a close tie with the United States on intelligence cooperation, and has strong anti-terror abilities and strict gun controls, Zhao told Xinhua in an interview on Saturday.

Nevertheless, the tragedies still happened, which shows Germany is facing a severe security situation and is exposed to a very high level of threat, Zhao said.

In contrast with Germany, gun controls in its neighboring countries are looser. Thus, the free movement of people among Schengen member states put immense pressure on the German government to prevent weapons from entering the country, Zhao said.

Germany was not a target of attack from extremist forces in the Middle East as the country has held a cautious and conservative stance on its foreign policy, he said

But now, refugee integration issues has caused a lot of headache for Germany, he added.

On the one hand, European leaders over-estimated the European society's ability to accept and assimilate the Middle East refugees. On the other hand, many of the refugees, who used to have a certain level of financial ability in their own country, feel dissatisfied when they find that living standard is lower now, the expert said.

Zhao said the public order and security issues resulting from the influx of refugees has stirred up repulsion from the local far-right in Germany and even the entire Europe.

Zhao noted that Merkel's open-door refugee policy has received a lot of criticism, and the recent attacks could lead to a further tightening of the policy.

"But it remains to be seen to what extent this might shake the German politics," he said.

It's obvious that the refugee crisis has weakened Merkel's governing foundation. Results of some surveys showed record low popularity towards the Merkel administration.

However, Zhao believes that currently no one in the ruling party nor the opposition party has the ability to replace Merkel's position in German politics.

In the aftermath of the recent attacks, Germany and even the entire Europe could block the paths that refugees take to enter the European continent, Zhao said.

According to the expert, there are mainly two routes that refugees take to enter Europe -- one leading from Turkey into Greece and the other being a sea route across the Mediterranean Sea into Italy.

Zhao noted that Europe is imposing tougher asylum rules to stem migrant inflow. Greece only opened a few islands for asylum seekers and the next step is to block the sea route to prevent illegal immigrants from entering Italy, he said.

Moreover, Europe will speed up the process of returning refugees who failed to meet the refugee standards, he added. Endi