“Next year is about one thing in particular: our cohesion,” Merkel said. “It is important not to follow those who, with coldness or even hate in their hearts, want to claim Germanness solely for themselves and exclude others.”

This untimely gush of warmth towards refugess comes in the wake of recent refugee violence which has been unfurling at an unprecedented pace.

“Her remarks come less than two weeks after a failed asylum seeker drove an articulated truck into families at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 and seriously injuring dozens more.” –Nick Gutteridge, Journalist