Mohammed – a large man with sad eyes – looked up at the mountains behind him and then across the road bridge that connects Austria to Bavaria.

Over the weekend, Germany’s domestic spy chief, Hans-Georg Maassen warned that Germany is seeing greater radicalisation of right-wing groups in the country, linked to Germany’s decision to accept record numbers of refugees.

“The world has become smaller but the crises are no fewer”, he added.

It has won her widespread worldwide admiration.

Commentators and enthusiasts across Europe should remember that Ms. Merkel and Mr. Schäuble, among others, were the architects of the systematic criminalization of migration over the past two decades that made it almost impossible for refugees to legally file their request for refuge or asylum. Therewith she achieved with shrewd politics what no one thought possible after the fall of the Wall in 1989: From its 26-year-old grave East Germany defeated West Germany.

Horst Seehofer, leader of her Bavarian sister party the CSU, was the first to criticise, vociferously, her suspension of the Dublin protocol. As many as 10,000 people per day arrived at the end of the month, he said Tuesday.

Klaus Peter Willsch, an MP from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat Union, recently told a newspaper “it’s time for uncomfortable truths”. He criticized the leadership’s “feel-good speak” and mantra-like promises that “we will somehow manage this”, pointing to existing problems in integrating migrant groups, in comments to the Passauer Neue Presse daily. “We want to and must master this huge challenge”, said Schaeuble. “But our options are limited”. The news this week from Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière that Germany has “temporarily” resurrected the border controls and with that practically suspended itself from the Schengen zone only served to reiterate the point that Merkel’s “humanitarian turn” is nothing of the sort.

Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, has seen her usually high ratings dip, with the German leader now sitting in fourth place among voters, according to local magazine Der Spiegel.

Support for Merkel, one of Germany’s most popular post-war chancellors, is waning.

“She’s taking a mother role – and that to an extent protects her from criticism”, he says.

Rumblings about her ability to lead the conservatives at the next general election have also surfaced. He called her decision a “mistake” from the start as refugees arriving in Munich’s central train station overwhelmed social workers and volunteers in Bavaria’s capital.

However, successful applicants will have quicker access to language courses to improve integration into society and the jobs market. All German states will be allocated 670 euros per refugee or asylum seeker. At closing time on a recent afternoon, hundreds of asylum seekers were left empty-handed, including Ahmed Hamadich, 27, who walked toward his blanket for another night outdoors. And, up to now, Merkel is unable to say what’s the cost of all of these, which is a concern for the Germans.