'Merkel has to leave': German chancellor faces fight over immigration policy on her road to re-election

At the entrance of Annaberg-Buchholz, a picturesque former mining town in Saxony, an inscription on a makeshift chalkboard on a haystack did not bode well for the German chancellor: “Merkel has to leave”
A hundred yards away, campaign posters for the chancellor's CDU party dotted the lamposts of the town, where Mrs Merkel campaigned on Thursday night.
The incumbent leader kicked off her campaign for next month's general elections this week, significantly later than her rivals, over whom she holds a comfortable lead.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fares at 40 per cent nationwide, while its main rival, the Social Democratic Party led by former President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz stagnates at 23 per cent.