German Vice Chancellor and head of the SDP party Sigmar Gabriel, meanwhile. criticized the migration policy of Merkel that led to the failure of her CDU party in elections in the province of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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Sunday’s result could make it more hard for Mrs Merkel to bury a festering dispute with the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian arm of her conservative bloc, which has long criticised her decision to open the borders and advocated an annual cap on migrants.
Merkel took responsibility for the result and said a failure to convince many concerned citizens about the government’s refugee policy played a role.
“The strong performance of AfD is bitter for many, for everyone in our party”.
Political analyst Hajo Funke estimates that the AfD will win 25 per cent of the vote and become the second biggest party in the state, after the SPD.
Peter Tauber, CDU general secretary, blamed the result on widespread “discontent and protest” at Merkel’s refugee policy.
The AfD has taken a strident anti-Islamic and anti immigrant stance and managed to exploit Merkel’s slump in popularity which is at a five-year low.
Leader Frauke Petry attacked Merkel’s party for saying that “they haven’t done anything wrong”.
The significant issues of integration and the deportation of failed asylum seekers were mentioned by Ms. Merkel who has turned more hard line on the migrant crisis in recent weeks claiming that she does not want to see a repeat of a year ago. He said Tuesday: “Our supporters and members. expect one thing above all of the Union: unity”.
“The result must be a wake-up call for the Union”, he told the Bild newspaper. The Bavarian finance minister Markus Söder also joined the ranks of the disaffected, adding: “It is no longer possible to ignore people’s views on this issue. Berlin needs to change tack”, he said.
While the Social Democratic Party emerged on top, it and other parties on the left also lost voters to the AfD – suggesting the AfD has the ability to poach voters from both sides of the political spectrum.
Only a few years ago chancellor Merkel was enjoying approval ratings north of 60%; quite impressive for an incumbent chancellor in her 3rd term.
Despite the setback on Sunday, Merkel nevertheless remains in a relatively strong position.
“She doesn’t have a rival so there’s nothing else to do”.
In addition, the AfD may have trouble translating its local wins to national success.
Before the vote in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, in the former East Germany, all of Germany’s other parties ruled out forming a governing coalition with the AfD.
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Speaking during a news conference at the G20 summit in China, Merkel said: “All of us now have to think about how we can earn their trust back, and of course I should be the first one to do that”. The Chancellor responded to those rumours saying that she had not considered whether or not she would be running again, and would only do so when the right time came. “This put her in her place”.
