On the eve of Christmas, Germany has reached a bloody pass and literally so. In the midst of terrorist outrages that have convulsed large parts of the world, the country was mercifully unscathed. Definitely in relation to next-door France where hundreds have perished in repeated instances of bedlam and butchery ~ Charlie Hebdo to Nice ~ perpetrated by Islamist fundamentalists. There are a couple of facets to the mayhem in one of Europe's largest Christmas markets in Berlin. Confusion gets worse confounded over the identity of the assassin. For one, the initial suspicion that he is a Pakistani migrant has now veered towards the probability that he is a Tunisian. For another, the mayhem is bound to have an impact on Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards migrants, indeed her prospects ahead of the national elections next year. "Whoever the culprits are, they will be punished as hard as our laws demand," was her immediate signal of intent. The profiling is important in the greater scheme of things. If indeed the outrage was carried out by a refugee, it will force the Chancellor to toughen her stand on migrants, verily effect a deviation from her decidedly humanitarian stance thus far, a policy that was almost uniquely German. Very pertinently has it been remarked that "Nice" has come to Germany. If the assassin does turn out to be a refugee, as Merkel fears, her “open-door” policy on migrants will almost certainly get a decisive make-over. It bears recall that when she unveiled the policy of "open sesame", she had clothed her seemingly bold initiative with the words, 'wir schaffen das' (We can do it)… ignoring the perceptions of the far-right. Much as she showed to the world that "Germany can", the generosity would appear to have backfired in the season of elections. She had essentially relinquished control over Germany’s borders and the country now plays willing host to no fewer than 800,000 people from the Middle East and North Africa.

Regardless of the course of the campaign and the Opposition strategies, domestic surveillance and controls on the influx of migrants are sure to be tightened even if the door is not slammed quite yet. Ms Merkel's moral gesture towards the dispossessed has floundered on Tuesday on the rock of terrorism. This is the cruel irony that confronts both the country and the refugee. Arguably, the migrant has sharpened the country's political divisions between the far right, represented by the Alternative für Deutschland, and the centre-right and the Left at another remove. The parties opposed to the Chancellor's policies will tend to make hay in an election year. Merkel's political future as much as the nationality of the assassin will remain a subject of conjecture for some time yet.