Angela Merkel is running for a fourth term as German Chancellor. She will need to recover some support she lost through her controversial refugee policy that has divided Germany. About 40 per cent of Germans still trust her, 42 per cent do not, and 18 per cent don’t know.

As a woman brought up in Communist East Germany, the 62-year-old Chancellor sees the historic importance of defending liberty. She has pledged to defend democracy, the rule of law and open markets and to work with her EU partners in managing globalisation.

As late as summer 2015, Mrs Merkel was riding exceptionally high with the CDU/CSU on 43 per cent in the polls, equal to its 2013 election win. But the refugee crisis shook Germany very badly. While many Germans responded positively to her decision in August 2015 to keep the borders open for Middle Eastern refugees, others quickly focused on security, Islamist terrorism and the difficult integration of more than one million new arrivals.

Meanwhile, the German Chancellor is under pressure to succeed outgoing US President Barack Obama as the West’s liberal champion amid the populism that elected comedian Donald Trump to the White House, pushed the UK towards Brexit and promoted right-wing politics in other EU States, including France and Austria.

Mrs Merkel will obviously have to be very careful of the Machiavellian Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin’s main objective is to destabilise the EU and he is doing everything possible to achieve this. Only recently the German intelligence chief warned of the danger of Russian interference in the upcoming federal elections in Germany through possible cyberattacks, following claims by US officials that Moscow interfered in the US presidential election.

Despite these concerns, Mrs Merkel is still the favourite to win the German elections next September. Hopefully she will be able to counter the anger stoked by her courageous refugee policy.