Greece needs EU help to avoid chaos over migrant crisis: Merkel

“I have no plan B”, Merkel said, adding that she was convinced she was on the right track: “I am fighting for this approach”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday called the actions of protestors who shouted abuse at a bus full of refugees “repulsive” and “unjustifiable”.

She said she is working toward reducing the number of migrants coming to Germany and Europe by fighting the causes of migration, by helping migrants attain legal status, by fighting human trafficking and by protecting the EU’s external borders.

Bavaria’s state governor Horst Seehofer, chairman of the sister party to Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, over the weekend refreshed calls to limit the number of migrants allowed to enter Germany to 200,000 this year, compared with the over one million asylum seekers who entered Germany last year.

On her part, the German Chancellor intends to increase the pressure on its European partners so that they show more solidarity towards Greece and at the same time produce more tangible results in the upcoming Refugees Summit on March 7.

After many failed attempts, the two meetings look like the final chance to agree on a joint response before warmer weather encourages more arrivals across the Mediterranean.

Merkel now faces what she said on Sunday was the biggest challenge of her decade in office. There is also strong dissent within Germany and the governing coalition.

The interview was the third major television appearance that Merkel has made in the last five months – the first with the same ARD-Talkshow hosted by Anne Will, the second with ZDF in mid-November.

Stephan Weil, the Social Democrat premier of the state of Lower Saxony, hit back on Sunday, calling for a bigger social services budget in order not to alienate ordinary Germans as the country accommodates over one million migrants.

At an economic forum in Delphi, Berlin’s ambassador to Athens, Peter Schoof, said: “In Germany we have taken the decision that we have to support Greece”, the Guardian said.

Austria and several Balkan countries have introduced restrictions stranding migrants in Greece.

Pointing to the high cost of integrating migrants, Weil said: “We can not create the impression that this is happening at the expense of the weaker members of our society”.