In the voting on September 4, the center-left Social Democrats polled first with 31 percent; and the anti-immigrant party, Alternative for Germany, polled second, with 21 percent, leaving Ms. Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats a distant third, with 19 percent. “There are many people in Germany who say they aren’t happy with Merkel anymore, but there is no alternative”.
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The right-wing AfD has gained support as voters become increasingly uneasy with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy, which saw about one million migrants arrive in Germany a year ago. AfD finished in second place behind the Social Democrats (SDP) in the rural east German state.
Around 2.5 million voters in Berlin will vote for a regional government on Sunday, with Merkel hoping for a better result than her humiliating defeat at the hands of the AfD in her home region.
One member of Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) who said he plans to defect to the AfD is Bastian Behrens, a 42-year-old public relations executive from Berlin’s leafy southwest.
It is a stronghold of Mrs Merkel’s federal coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), who are expected to remain the largest party. But there is no certainty Merkel would lose if she decides to stand for a fourth term next year, nor is the nation setting a trend on the continent; it is merely catching up.
The most prominent domestic critic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approach to the migrant crisis is insisting that he won’t give up his demand for a cap on refugee numbers.
Now that the AfD is in 9 out of 16 German states – 10 after this weekend’s vote – many fear this is a tipping point for the party and for Germany: a right-wing party, long taboo in postwar Germany, is now moving from the margins to the mainstream.
A participant at the meeting with Merkel said company executives from DAX firms and small businesses discussed their opinions for 2-1/2 hours and came to the conclusion: “We want to do this”.
In addition, “politicians are making our lives more and more complicated”. Voters are focused on the cost, integration and security. Berlin candidate Georg Pazderski has said: “I favour educating these people (immigrants) but not integrating them”.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats now lie in third place with 17 per cent of the vote, behind the Green Party on 19 per cent and the Social Democrats (SDP) on 21 per cent.
“We believe that the lack of ambition of the European agenda could feed a decline in confidence by markets and economic agents in the coming months, causing an economic slowdown in the euro area”, Gudin said in a note.
The AfD party was formed in 2013 and is euroskeptic and anti-immigration.
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While the NPD usually receives seven or eight percent of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its support was down to three percent in the latest elections, with much of its usual votes going to the AfD.
