It was a decision guaranteed to provoke outrage.  Following four recent murderous terror attacks, the government of Germany raided the German people’s healthcare funds in order to get more money for refugees.  After the mass shooting on July 22nd, a Syrian refugee butchered a pregnant Germany woman on the 24th.  Only days earlier, an Afghan refugee had attacked train passengers with an axe.  A 27 year old Syrian man attempted to blow himself up at a music concert in the once-peaceful nation that had welcomed him in.  Rather than reverse course, the government led by Prime Minister Angela Merkel is stealing taxpayer funds dedicated to the health of the German people, and spending them to bring in still more migrants.

Germany’s President, Joachim Gauck, justified Germany’s decision to focus on refugees in spite of popular outrage by saying that “right now, the elites are not the problem.  The people are.”  This statement went over about as well as you would expect.

The Presidency of Germany is a largely ceremonial position compared with the Prime Minister.  However, the President is supposed to speak for the German nation as well as representing the nation on high public occasions.  One such occasion was the recent memorial service for those murdered in the recent mass shooting, mostly teenagers.  He said in the speech given for this purpose that the main thing was not to let this kind of thing bother you so much that it stole your sense of normalcy.

“If mass shooters and terrorists have something in common, it is likely alone the intention to rob our feeling of security and normality,” Mr. Gauck said.

It might be that they have something else in common, these multiple attackers who were refugees from Muslim countries.  However, the elite opinion is well-represented in these comments:  the only think they have in common is a desire to rob us of feeling normal.

In spite of this elite sense that everything is fine, not every German politician believes that the people should just calm down and learn to take it.  Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann has called for renewed questioning of the government’s immigration policy.  Thomas de Maizière, the federal immigration minister, was trotted out to reassert that all was well, and that the immigration policy had nothing to do with the multiple terrorist attacks in seven days.

As for the German people, 83% of them now report that immigration is the nation’s biggest challenge — a figure that has doubled in a year.

Ms Merkel tried to silence the naysayers this week. “For me it’s clear — we stick to our principles,” she said. “Angst cannot be the guide for political action.” She set out a nine-point plan to respond to the attacks, including measures to recruit more security, lower hurdles for deportations and to flag refugees who might be radicalised.

But for some, her breezy optimism is beginning to pale. “It’s wrong for Merkel to keep repeating that ‘we can do it,’” says Dr Heuser of Charité. “Because it’s not clear to me that we can.”

It is also not clear that they should.