A Syrian couple living in Germany have named their daughter Angela Merkel in honour of the German Chancellor. Mrs. Merkel is widely seen as the project manager of the European policy to allow more than one million migrants into Europe this year.
Angela Merkel Alhamza was born on the 27 December in the town of Duisberg, which is situated about 25 miles north of Cologne. Her parents arrived from Syria some three months earlier to begin new lives in Germany, Focus Online has reported.
“We want to thank you that we can be here. Germany is like a mother to us,” her father Mamon Alhamza told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine.
Duisberg registry office has confirmed that it has no problems with the name; a spokesman said: “The name of Angela Merkel is possible if the child’s welfare is not compromised.
The Syrian couple are not the first parents to name their child in honour of Ms Merkel; last year a woman from Ghana living in Hannover also named her daughter for the German leader.
Natural-born Germans, however, are growing decidedly less fond of their Chancellor. Tensions grew as more than a million asylum seekers streamed into Germany last year, but following a series of coordinated sex attacks in German cities on New Year’s Eve, Ms Merkel has come under increasing pressure to rethink her commitment to open borders.
The largest of these attacks, now known to be the Arab gang-rape sex-game ‘Taharrush’, took place in Cologne. At a protest held outside Cologne cathedral a few days later, one female demonstrator held a sign reading: “Mrs. Merkel, what are you doing? This is scary”.