WHEN VIRTUE-SIGNALLING AS A BASIS FOR POLICY FAILS: With Merkel’s Popularity Tanking, New Anti-Terror Laws Announced.

Days after the second July terror attack in Germany was claimed by ISIS, a pollster found that Germans were not blaming Angela Merkel’s open doors policies for the violence: only 28 percent said they saw a link. But that Forsa poll may have been held too quickly after the event. An Infratest dimap poll, held a week later, saw support for Merkel drop by 12 percent in July, while support for Horst Seehofer, her political adversary from Bavaria, rise by 11.

Now, a week later still, the trend is confirmed. . . .

The ongoing real impact of the open doors policy has been minimized by the shuttering of the Balkan migrant corridor, and reinforced the deal with Turkey (though, as we noted, some Europeans are thinking that the Turkey deal itself may not be the critical element in keeping the numbers down).

On the other hand, her coalition gets to blow the law-and-order horn—always a gesture that’s welcomed by a nervous population.

Will the new laws be enough to forestall a Paris-style massacre in Germany? We certainly hope so, but only time will tell.

My prediction is that this won’t be enough.