A more nuanced picture of the recent German election results than in elsewhere:

The results show a country that is increasingly polarized. The two centrist parties, the CDU and the SPD, lost voters; the AfD and the FDP, a party that supports free markets and whose leader has called for a more restrictive approach to the refugees, were the only two parties that gained in all three regions.

If these election results indicate anything it is that Germans are still trying to balance the need to help those fleeing civil war and unrest with their own insecurities in the face of the newcomers.

“A million immigrants later, Germans are shaken,” Bernd Ulrich wrote in Die Zeit, “but Germany’s civil society has shown its resilience.”

The German government’s own response to the election results has been unequivocal: A spokesman said there would be no change in policy toward the migrants.