In particular, they want a cap of 200,000 refugees per year, which Merkel rejects. The party was founded in 2013. The party had chosen a man dressed as a clown as the party’s symbol in this campaign. On Sunday it entered its 10th state assembly, receiving 14.2 percent in the German capital. It won 16% of the vote.
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Is history about to repeat itself in Germany as the Berlin Mayor Michael Müller predicts a return of the Nazi party, well it is hoped that it is not, but support for Angela Merkel has fallen dramatically, which many have put down to her invitation for the integration of the roughly one million migrants who entered Germany previous year.
Markus Soeder, finance minister from the CDU’s sister party CSU, said the vote, which was the worst ever result in Berlin for the CDU party was a “massive wake-up call”, that she should impose stricter limits on migration.
She added: “We have to protect our borders”.
Merkel added that she’s prepared to address voters’ concerns about the unprecedented influx of migrants over the past year last year, 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.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she takes responsibility for her party’s poor showing in Berlin state elections on the weekend.
A year before a national election, the result is set to raise pressure on Merkel and deepen rifts in her conservative camp, with more sniping expected from her CSU allies in Bavaria.
“I’m the party chairwoman, and I’m not going to duck responsibility”, Merkel told reporters a day after her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party received 18% of the vote in elections in Germany’s capital.
Many voters drifted further to the left and right, with the Left Party climbing 3.9 points to 15.6 percent.
The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) won the highest percentage of votes with 23 per cent.
Responding to the result, Sigmar Gabriel, the German vice-chancellor and leader of Ms Merkel’s coalition partners, the SPD said: “Berlin continues to stand for social and human decency”.
Merkel’s CDU came second, but with just 17.5 per cent of the vote the result was disastrous for the party. The right-wing AFD has secured another strong election result.
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In the regional election In Berlin, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered such a setback that Berlin will have the very first left-wing triple coalition in its history. The Social Democrats (SPD) also lost support, falling to 21.6 percent from 28.3 percent, but remained the biggest party.
