The elections in the prosperous southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate and relatively poor Saxony-Anhalt in the ex-communist east were the first major political test since Germany registered almost 1.1 million people as asylum-seekers past year.
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But many viewed the overall outcome as a sign of support for her approach.
The patience Merkel is asking for seems to be gone among many of her allies, who called for the chancellor to back down for the good of her party.
Angela Merkel has vowed to stick to her controversial migrant policy despite suffering heavy losses in state elections on Sunday.
The Social Democratic Party won 37.5 percent in Rhineland-Palatinate, followed by CDU at 32.5 percent and Alternative for Germany at 11 percent.
The leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Merkel’s CDU, blames the Chancellor’s refugee policy for the conservatives’ weak showing in the elections.
Merkel was due to respond to the results at a press conference later Monday. In the west, it could be pipped by the Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg, where it is now the largest party.
Exit polls showed that the AfD drew most of its support from people who previously hadn’t voted for a party, but they also drew thousands of voters from Merkel’s conservatives, particularly in Baden-Wurttemberg.
Final results were not expected until early Monday, but initial projections based on exit polls for the public broadcaster ARD indicated that the chancellor’s Christian Democrats would not garner enough votes to take control of either of the western states.
The results appeared to unsettle local mainstream politicians.
AfD is projected to garner close to one in every four votes in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt – making it the second biggest political force there after the CDU.
“AfD has no political programme and no capacity to resolve problems”, he told Die Welt daily on Saturday. “The stance she represents and defends is that a European solution to the refugee crisis should be sought”.
The German Chancellor decided past year to open the door to more than a million migrants, many fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I have never spoken out against national measures”.
The results are a huge boost for AfD leader Frauke Petry, who was dubbed the nation’s “most unsafe woman” by the media in January after she called for refugees to be shot and killed on the border with Austria.
Formed three years ago in opposition to eurozone bailouts, the AfD has morphed into an anti-refugee party over the past year, kicking out its founder and seizing on a record influx of refugees to lure new voters and steal disaffected members of Merkel’s conservatives.
One of those draining support from Merkel’s CDU is the AfD.
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AfD’s strong performance will boost its hopes of entering the national parliament next year, but it remains to be seen how it will perform in the long term.
