It was the worst of policies, it was the best of policies; it may not even have been intended as a policy at all. In late summer 2015 as a tide of Syrians, Afghans and others marched towards Europe in search of refuge, Angela Merkel announced that Germany would, in effect, take them all in. The move startled the chancellor’s critics and allies alike. By upending migration policy, had the methodical-to-the-point-of-obstructive leader revealed a rash streak on perhaps the most fraught topic in European politics? Mrs Merkel’s answer to both fans and naysayers came in the form of a phrase that came to mark her 16 years as chancellor: Wir schaffen das, We can handle this. Over 1m migrants soon made Germany their home. A decade later Mrs Merkel has been proved right, but in a pyrrhic sort of way. Germany did manage, and better than anyone might have expected. But the costs of doing so have mightily strengthened her political opponents.