Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a moment of reckoning after the deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin. The leader’s popularity had already taken a hit due to her open-door refugee policy, and attacks in Bavaria over the Summer.<br /><br /> Addressing the country in a televised news conference, she said:<br /><br /> “This is a very difficult day. I am disappointed, shocked and very sad about what happened in Berlin yesterday.”<br /><br /> Security sources cited by reporters point to the suspect being a 23-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. Merkel responded to the news, saying it would be “particularly repugnant if the perpetrator was someone who got protection in Germany as a refugee.” She added that the crime would be clarified and punished as harshly as the law allows.<br /><br /> Announcing she would visit the attack site later in the day, she sought to unite Germany saying, ‘We don’t want to live with the fear of evil paralysing us.’<br /><br /> #Merkel: “We don't want to live in fear…we will find the strength to live our lives open and free” #BerlinAttack https://t.co/TknbhcEEHa— euronews (@euronews) December 20, 2016<br /> <br /><br /> Anti-EU politician Nigel Farage was criticised for political point scoring after the tragedy, saying that the attack would be Merkel’s legacy.<br /><br /> Terrible news from Berlin but no surprise. Events like these will be the Merkel legacy.— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) December 20, 2016<br />
