Although AfD has performed strongly in several other regional elections, most notably coming in second with 24% of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt in March, it’s an unprecedented moment in modern German politics that the CDU is set to finish behind a party so far to its right on most issues. The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) – which now heads a grand coalition with the CDU as its junior partner – is projected to remain the strongest party at 30.4 per cent.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said she was “very unhappy” with the outcome of the election result in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
A year after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open the country’s borders to refugees, an anti-immigrant party has made huge gains in a state election, according to the official results with most of the ballots counted.
Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrats’ leader and a likely challenger to Merkel next year, underlined his party’s increasing distance from the chancellor as it eyes the national election.
Together with Berlin’s elections in two weeks, Sunday’s polls are also a key test ahead of general elections next year, when Merkel’s decision exactly a year ago to let in tens of thousands of Syrian and other refugees is expected to be a key point of contention.
“We have wasted a great deal of time with unnecessary arguments”, he said, arguing that Merkel had been guilty of “simply repeating “we will manage it” without doing it as well”.
Sunday’s results “are bitter for everyone in our party”, said the Christian Democrats’ Secretary General, Peter Tauber.
The AfD, which blames the influx on Ms Merkel’s refusal to close the borders, campaigned against immigration as well as opposing her renewable-energy strategy and arguing against sanctions on Russian Federation.
The northeast German state is the poorest in Germany and home to Mrs. Merkel’s electoral district. Considered political outsiders that mainstream parties are unlikely to work with, the AfD lacks a strong national machine and would probably face a hard time forming a ruling coalition even if it scored big in a national vote.
“Right now, the chancellor is not hitting the right tone in nearly all the areas that most concern her voters: refugees, Europe, public safety”, wrote Gabor Steingart, the publisher of the main business daily Handelsblatt, which has been among her strongest critics.
The party, which was founded in 2013, has seen mounting successes in state elections, and now has seats in nine of Germany’s 16 state legislatures. Projections put its support below the 5 percent needed to keep them, with many supporters apparently switching to AfD.
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In Baden-Württemberg state election, 2016, Ms. Merkel’s CDU got 42 seats compared to 60 in previous, while AfD won 23, in its first contest.
