Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union finished third in the election for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s state legislature, behind the three-year-old Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
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The Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which has campaigned hard against Chancellor Merkel’s policies on refugees, is estimated to have won 21% in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern contest.
“I am the party leader, I am the chancellor – you can’t separate those in people’s eyes, so I am of course responsible too” for the result, Merkel said.
AfD co-chief Beatrix von Storch, with her eyes on national elections next year, hailed the shock outcome as “the beginning of the end of the Merkel era”, while Bild daily labelled the result as another “slap across the face” for the chancellor. “The issue of integration will play a major role, as will the repatriation of refugees without a permit of stay”, Merkel said.
Merkel’s party took third place in the September 4 state election with 19 percent of the vote.
Merkel is expected to make a statement on Tuesday at the G20 when the results are finalised.
Seehofer, who is also the Chief of the arch-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), in his comments underline the deep divisions in the chancellor’s ruling coalition caused by the arrival during the previous year of about 1 million refugees to Germany.
It may still be able to continue its coalition in the state with Angela Merkel’s CDU despite the stinging defeat for the Chancellor in her home region.
“This ignorance is exemplary”, she said.
Seehofer, a long-time critic of Merkel’s refugee policy, said that confidence in the government of Merkel “is dwindling rapidly”. “A change of course is needed in Berlin”.
A recent poll showed her approval rating fell from 67 percent to a five-year low of 45 percent.
According to Sebastian Friederich, a political commentator who has studied the AfD, “traditional coalition governments can’t win any more”.
The Bavarian branch of Merkel’s Union bloc, the Christian Social Union, has long criticized her approach to the migrant crisis.
“We are a country that puts the dignity of every single human being at the centre of things”, she said.
The AfD has managed to gain voters from various parties, according to AfD leader Frauke Petry.
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The AfD’s win was cheered by the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, who posted on Twitter: “What was impossible yesterday has become possible: the patriots of AfD sweep up the party of Ms Merkel”.
