Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was relegated to third place behind the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in weekend polls in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The Social Democrats and Christian Democratic Union have governed the state for 10 years.
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The SPD leader and vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, has systematically attacked Merkel’s motto of “we can do it” on refugees.
“Leif-Erik Holm, who heads the AfD in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said that the election result should act as a warning to the government to rethink its open-arms refugee policies”.
The defeat immediately brought calls for her to get tough on immigration, which has become the number one political issue, causing many Germans to move their support to nationalist parties, such as the AfD.
Germany let in nearly 1 million people past year and, this summer, suffered a series of terrorist attacks, with AfD riding a wave of popular fear and scepticism.
Experts say the results don’t mean there’s a looming disaster for Merkel in next year’s election if she chooses to run – the AfD would likely have trouble forming a coalition with more traditional political parties – but they do signal some concerns for Merkel.
“I consider the fundamental decisions as right”, she repeated on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in China, “but there is much to be done to win back trust and the topic of integration will play a huge role, as well as the repatriation of those who don’t gain residency rights”.
The SPD, which has ruled the rural state on the Baltic coast with the CDU as junior coalition partners since 2006, won 30.5 per cent of the vote, down from 35.6 per cent in the last election in 2011. If she does, Sunday’s results show she’ll have a challenge on her hands.
After more than a decade at the top of German politics, Merkel has successfully weathered crisis after crisis by gently applying the brakes when others would have stepped on the gas, containing conflicts by pragmatic compromise rather than dramatic intervention. “So the quarrels between the CDU and CSU will continue, and the Social Democrats will turn even more strongly against the Union to have a chance in the national election campaign”. She hasn’t yet declared whether she will seek a fourth term next year, but there’s no obvious alternative.
It basked Monday in its latest success. “It is not just ignorance”. “We see that in many regions of Germany where the CDU bases, the party bases, don’t agree with Merkel’s policy anymore”.
“The AfD is an openly far-right party”.
He said “it takes time for the measures to work and to win back the trust that has been lost”.
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“Apparently it is not clear to many voters, or they accept this, that AfD doesn’t distance itself clearly from the far-right spectrum either in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or nationally”.
