At G20, eight per cent supports the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) replaced Merkel’s CDU as the second-strongest party in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where a national debate about refugee integration and the threat of terrorism crowded local issues.
Advertisement
In Sunday’s election, Angela Merkel’s “catastrophic immigration policy” overshadowed all other policy areas, Petry said.
It is particularly doing well in eastern German regions, which are generally poorer, more sceptical of mainstream parties and more critical of immigration, although Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has taken in only around 25,000 asylum seekers out of the million that arrived to the country a year ago.
The Social Democrats, who have governed the state since 1998, took 30.2 percent for the most votes, giving them the first shot at forming the next state government.
“She’ll long be blamed for letting a party to the right of the conservatives get an established foothold”.
Frauke Petry, Chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany, on Sunday.
Discontent over Merkel’s welcoming of refugees has spread even to the rural northeastern corner of the country in a state that has the fewest number of foreigners in Germany.
Although Merkel already adjusted migrant policies over the past year, she can’t make a clean break from her overall approach because “that wouldn’t be credible”, political science professor Klaus Schroeder told N24 television.
Angela Merkel is now in China for the G20 summit.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – which together with the Social Democrats (SPD) has ruled the state since 2006 – was pushed into third place, its worst result in the region.
Merkel admitted Monday that decisions on immigration played a role in the result, but insisted that she has made the right ones.
While the Social Democrats emerged as the largest party on the night and the results for the Christian Democrats were particularly humiliating, left-wing parties in the state also suffered considerable losses. “There is money for them, but no money to bring pensions in the east to the same levels as those of the west”, he said, referring to the lower retirement payments that residents of former Communist states receive compared to those in the west. With her eyes on national elections next year, AfD co-chief Beatrix von Storch hailed the shock outcome as “the beginning of the end of the Merkel era”, while Bild daily labelled the result another “slap across the face” for the chancellor.
The AFD is allied in neighboring Austria with the far-right Freedom Party, whose candidate Norbert Hofer almost won a national election earlier this year.
But the “migration policy has sparked a feeling of insecurity among the people”, he said.
“What is urgently needed is that there is more direct investment in Africa”, she said. He was quoted as complaining that his “repeated demand for a change of course” on migrant policy hadn’t been heeded and said Sunday’s “disastrous” result was a outcome.
The regional election is considered a rehearsal for next year’s general election when Merkel’s decision, exactly a year ago, to let in tens of thousands of migrants is expected to be a key point of contention.
Advertisement
Merkel’s bloc leads national polls, although her own popularity ratings have dropped from stellar to respectable.
