Anti-immigrant party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) will enter Berlin’s state parliament for the first time after winning 14.2 percent of the vote.
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The far-right, openly anti-Muslim AfD party has made significant gains in Germany’s local elections as Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party slumped to its worst ever result.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers backing down on her open-door refugee policy after taking the blame for her party’s declining popularity.
Around one million people fleeing Middle East war zones entered Germany past year, raising concerns about their financial and social impact.
The state elections are strongly suggesting that the next year’s federal election will not be good for chancellor Merkel and can very well mark the end of Merkel era in Germany. However the party is already present in nine out of 16 state parliaments in Germany.
That would most likely raise the pressure further on Merkel one year before a federal election and could deepen divisions within her conservative camp.
The result means that the CDU and SPD won’t be able to carry on with their coalition government in Berlin.
The Greens won 15.9 per cent of the Berlin vote, down 1.7 percentage points from 2011, while the Left party was up four points at 15.7 per cent, according to ZDF.
In recent elections in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the anti-refugee vote overwhelmed the Christian Democrats in Merkel’s home state.
The centre-left Social Democratic Party earned about 22 per cent of the vote and is expected to form a government with two other parties, the Greens and the Left Party, which each earned about 15 per cent of the vote. In a Berlin state vote, Merkel’s CDU party polled 17.6% – its lowest showing since 1990, figures from public broadcaster ARD showed on Monday.
Following the release of the polls, Merkel said she “takes responsibility for the outcome”.
Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder, from the CDU’s sister party CSU, was quick to call it the “second massive wake-up call” in two weeks.
“I think it is risky to transfer the Berlin result to the federal level”, he told broadcaster ZDF.
The AfD celebrated the Berlin election, with AfD candidate Georg Pazderski telling supporters, “From zero to double digits, that’s unique for Berlin”.
“We see that in many regions of Germany the CDU bases, the party bases, don’t agree with Merkel’s policy any more”, she said.
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Sunday was not a happy day for the Chancellor of Germany’s political party.
