Berlin

AFTER 10 years in office in 1989, the sun began to set on Margaret Thatcher's reign at 10 Downing Street. There was plenty of evidence - not least in her handling of German unification - that she was losing her grip. Now, a decade after her chancellorship started in 2005, the same fate is befalling Angela Merkel; we are seeing the waning of Europe's pivotal politician.

Both periods were marked by large movements of people into the prosperous parts of Germany. In 1989, 20,000 dissatisfied East Germans a month were streaming into West Germany; more than a quarter of a century later, the same numbers are journeying into Germany within a single weekend - this time, displaced migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. The latest estimate of the human flows for the whole year is 1.5 million - nearly double the 800,000 forecast earlier this summer - placing unprecedented burdens on policing, social services and, ultimately, the political calculations and machinery behind Mrs Merkel's leadership.