Refugee girl, 14, defends Angela Merkel over tearful encounter

A 14-year-old Palestinian refugee who burst into tears during a conversation with Angela Merkel is defending the German leader's handling of the incident.

Merkel faced criticism for her matter-of-fact explanation that Germany couldn't take in everyone who wants to come, and that asylum seekers can expect to learn within a year whether they can stay.

Reem Sahwil told ARD television Friday that Merkel "listened to me, and she also told me what she thinks about it, and I think that's OK."

'Cold, bureaucratic'

The encounter with Sahwil , caught on video during a town hall-style meeting Wednesday, caused a flurry of online outrage, both in Germany and abroad. Merkel's detractors seized upon the video as proof of her cold-hearted attitude, with commentators mocking her for patting the girl as she cried.

Italy's La Repubblica newspaper described Merkel's reaction as "cold, bureaucratic."

"This delivers yet another blow to the image of Europe's biggest power," the newspaper wrote, noting that it comes as left-leaning activists across Europe were urging people on social media to boycott Germany because of the government's hard line on Greece.

Such criticism, often heard elsewhere in Europe, reached the front page of one of Germany's biggest-selling newsmagazines, Stern, this week. It portrayed Merkel with a steely gaze and the caption "Ice Queen" to describe her role in the bailout negotiations with Greece — sometimes portrayed as a showdown between Athens and Berlin.

Olaf Boehnke, a political analyst, said the way the episode was portrayed in some media fed the cliche of the `ugly German' that still prevails 70 years after the end of the Second World War.

Conciliatory tone

"They reinforced the image of the cold chancellor who eats Greeks for breakfast and then can't show any warmth toward a young Palestinian girl," said Boehnke, who heads the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Aware that her words were being broadcast across Europe, Merkel struck a more conciliatory tone Friday. Speaking in Parliament, she urged lawmakers to back the new bailout deal for Greece, which puts Germany on the hook for further loans to keep the government in Athens afloat.

"Let's imagine for a moment what it would mean if here in Germany desperate retirees had to queue in front of closed banks and wait to get a pension of 120 euros a week," she said.

Boehnke said one of the problems that Germany has had, including in the debate about whether Greece can remain in the euro, is its own heavy emphasis on rules.

"Germans have a tendency to talk about rules first, that's a German obsession because we live in a very rule-based society," he said.

Immigrants needed

"Germans sometimes pretend as if obeying the rules is the most important thing. And then this girl comes along, she's been living here a long time, speaks perfect German and wants to integrate, and instead of saying OK, let's change the rules for her, we say no, 'Rules are rules."'

That rules can and do change, even in Germany, is something Merkel can testify to. Since she became chancellor a decade ago, the law on immigration and asylum has gradually changed as Merkel's own centre-right Christian Democrats began to accept that Germany needs more immigrants.

In recent years between half and two-thirds of asylum applicants were given permission to remain in Germany.