The strong AfD result, thanks to support especially in the vast tower block districts in Berlin’s former communist east, meant it has now won opposition seats in ten of Germany’s 16 states, a year ahead of national elections.
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“No-one wants a repetition of this situation, including me”, she said, accepting responsibility for Sunday’s vote, which was the CDU’s worst ever result in the city.
The result is seen as a reaction to Ms Merkel’s immigration policy with many CDU voters shifting towards the AfD to register their disapproval.
The Political Party of Germany Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the CDU, has suffered historic losses in Berlin state elections. The Green Party received 15.2 percent, down by 2.4 percentage points.
A chastened Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare admission of failure on Monday, offering an apology to Germans unsettled by her migration strategy, which brought more than one million people into the country previous year.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats were routed in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two weeks ago, triggering calls from the CSU for her to toughen up her migrant policy.
The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party made gains, taking around 14% of the vote.
A backlash against her migrant policy has raised questions about whether Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, will stand for a fourth term next year.
The result now casts a dark shadow on the future of the 62-year-old German Chancellor who has been accused of ignoring public concerns about her decision to let in over one million immigrants into the country. She said she was still motivated.
“The AfD has arrived in the German capital and is also on a direct path to the Bundestag”.
That raises the prospect of a three-way coalition between the SPD, Greens and Left Party.
Merkel added that she’s prepared to address voters’ concerns about migrants, but that if people simply don’t want Muslim asylum-seekers due to their religion, then that would be counter to her Christian Democratic Party’s basic principles, as well as Germany’s.
“I take responsibility as party leader and chancellor”, Merkel said at a news conference alongside her party’s mayoral candidate, Frank Henkel.
“We are all angry that the AfD got in”, Michael Mueller, Berlin’s mayor and the Social Democrats’ leading candidate, told cheering supporters in the capital.
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It will nearly certainly be forced out of the Berlin state Government, where it was the junior coalition partner with the SPD, and Muller is expected to seek a new coalition with the Greens and Left Party.
