Driven by generosity, altruism and social responsibility, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to let in one million refugees in 2015 without much apparent concern for what the average German citizen thought or wanted. This partly explains why she is not as popular as she once was.

Mrs Merkel’s main rival in next September’s election, Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, didn’t face strong competition within his Social Democratic Party. Most of his colleagues in the party still believe in European unity but they just want to be led by someone who will put their interests first.

Being a heartfelt European, Mr Schulz defends European integration more emotionally than Mrs Merkel does. Yet, parts of Mr Schulz’s tune for next autumn’s election is sounding more like nationalism, his simple message being “I’ll protect us”, while Mrs Merkel’s main message of the past years has been “I’ll protect you, but I have to protect others as well”.

For the common citizen, however, Mrs Merkel’s generosity and altruism boiled down to one very simple question: “Mrs Merkel, where, in all these years you’ve been at the helm, has the State protected my interests?”

Obviously, there are quite a few who disagree with Mrs Merkel’s reasoning but no matter what her critics say, I strongly believe that the Iron Lady of Germany deserves a fourth term in office.