A large group of people, but also the cultural significance of christmas itself.
My understanding of Merkel is that she does whatever she thinks will be popular, which is how she keeps getting re-elected. On this occasion she was wrong with immigration, but instead of backing down she is continuing with the same policy.
There is a lot more state censorhip of media in Germany than I think most people realise, even on the internet certain Facebook pages and Youtube channels aren’t visible in Germany. I think this is because of East Germany’s communist history, given that ex-Stasi informers are given positions of power over these things (Evidence 1, Evidence 2, Evidence 3).