It is more accurate to call it panic than plotting. This week I spent time in the company of members of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party. Startlingly for an outsider, the conversations turned on whether the German chancellor would survive the refugee crisis. Some thought she had just weeks to turn things around. Never mind that only yesterday she had towered above any other European leader. Overnight, the unthinkable has become the plausible — for some in her party, the probable.
這事與其說是陰謀,不如說是恐慌。上周我與安格拉?默克爾(Angela Merkel)所在的基民盟(Christian Democrat)的一些黨員作了一番交談。對局外人來說令人震驚的是,話題轉向了德國總理是否撐得過難民危機。一些人認為她只有數周時間來扭轉局面。且不談她的威望直到最近還遠遠高于歐洲其他領導人。一夜之間,難以置信的事似乎變得合情合理——對于其黨內某些人來說,甚至是很可能發生的事。