Voters have already voted in droves for the AfD, rejecting Merkel’s Christian Democrats in three state elections in March.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats fell to third place in a state election on Sunday behind the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, TV projections showed.
Meanwhile, one of Mrs. Merkel’s top deputies Michael Grosse-Groehmer said, “This isn’t pretty for us”.
Germany’s anti-migrant populists made a strong showing at Sunday’s state polls, defeating German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party, partial results said. “Maybe today is the beginning of the end of Angela Merkel”, said Leif-Erik Holm, the AFD’s main candidate in the state.
“This was more than a small state election, it was a vote on Merkel”, said news site Spiegel Online, pointing at the “protest storm” in “Merkel’s living room”.
Seehofer has been a long-time vocal critic of Merkel’s open-door policy since the chancellor allowed some 1 million refugees to cross Germany’s borders past year.
“The more seats AfD will gain in the state parliaments, the more possibilities we will have to influence the government, so that they change the direction of its policy [toward migrants]”, Frohnmaier said.
The result is the first time the AfD has defeated Merkel’s party in a state election.
After her rival from the AfD Party used her incompetence to manage the refugee issue as an advantage to surpass her, his obvious achievement raised concerns regarding Merkel’s capacity to win another public election.
Economically weak Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in Germany’s north-eastern corner, is home to 1.6 million of the country’s 80 million people and is a relative political lightweight.
He also stressed that apart from refugees and immigration, he is demanding that the chancellor clarify her government’s stance on taxation, security and pensions by October.
The election was dominated by the refugee issue, a year after Merkel’s decision to let in asylum seekers making their way across Europe.
In spite of the setback, the Social Democrats, led by Erwin Sellering in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, were relieved with the results which will allow a reissuing of its coalition with the Christian Democrats in this state.
The AfD, which was founded in 2013, has continued its meteoric rise even though leading members of the party have sparked outrage over insulting remarks, including one disparaging footballer Jerome Boateng, of mixed German and Ghanaian descent, as the neighbour no German wants.
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She added that there is much to be done about the refugees, including the repatriation of those denied asylum in her country.
