This September, at the height of what the German press has since dubbed an "autumn fairy-tale", Angela Merkel visited an asylum centre in Spandau, near Berlin. The refugees greeted the German chancellor as though she were their saviour, pressing close for seines with her. Mrs Merkel does not usually take kindly to unsolicited male hugs. But this time she posed gamely and flashed winning smiles. What made her a heroine to the refugees was a decision she had taken only days earlier. Thousands of people trudging through the Balkans toward northern Europe were stranded in Hungary in precarious conditions. Empathising with these huddled masses, Mrs Merkel temporarily ignored the European Union's asylum agreements, which stipulate that the member state in which refugees first arrive must process their asylum requests. On the chancellor's command, Germany opened its borders to the refugees. Coming via Austria on foot, bus and train, more than 20,000 arrived in the first weekend of September alone.
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