Two weeks ago, comedian Jan Boehmermann recited a 24-line ditty on German public broadcaster ZDF describing the Turkish president as a pedophile who engages in sex acts with animals. Now Recep Tayyip Erdogan is demanding that Merkel’s government sanction an investigation under an obscure German law that prohibits insulting foreign leaders.

If Merkel blocks the investigation, she risks incensing Erdogan — a key partner in stemming the flow of refugees to Europe — even more. If she allows it, she lets the prickly Turkish leader export his assault on freedom of speech to Germany. Bild, Germany’s largest circulation newspaper, calls Merkel’s quandary “a serious international crisis.”

“Angela Merkel can only lose. In fact she’s already lost,” wrote one commentator in Spiegel Online. “The whole country sees that Erdogan has the chancellor in hand and can lead her around like in a circus ring.”

Merkel, eager to stop the exodus of refugees from Syria’s civil war to Europe, cut a controversial deal with Turkey last month. In return for taking back migrants crossing illegally into the European Union, Ankara will get billions of euros in assistance, visa-free travel for its citizens, and a faster track to EU membership.