Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, meanwhile, garnered just 19 percent in its worst ever showing in the north-eastern state, while the Social Democrats maintained top place with around 30 percent.
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Merkel initially won praise, but the mood has since changed, giving way to fears over how Europe’s biggest economy will integrate the more than 1 million people who arrived in the country.
But, the northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was home to merely 25,000 asylum seekers past year.
Merkels refugee policies were a prominent issue in the campaign for Sundays election, which came a year to the day after she chose to let in migrants from Hungary setting off the peak of last years influx.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania suffered a stinging backlash on Sunday as the upstart opposition right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party entered its ninth regional assembly since 2013.
The three-year-old AfD drew supporters from across the spectrum to finish second with 20.8pc of votes.
The northeast German state is the poorest in Germany and home to Mrs. Merkel’s electoral district.
Leif-Erik Holm, the leader of the anti-Islamic, anti-immigration, and anti-European AfD, proclaimed the result as the beginning of the end for Angela Merkel.
Merkel’s decision has left her increasingly isolated in Europe, and exposed her to heavy criticism at home, including from her own conservative allies.
Peter Tauber, CDU general secretary, blamed the result on widespread “discontent and protest” at Merkel’s refugee policy. “By far the most likely scenario remains that Merkel will run again at the next federal election in September 2017 – and will remain chancellor thereafter”.
However, it has no chance of governing in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since the other parties have said they would not form a coalition with the party. “People do not support this policy anymore”, AfD Deputy Leader Beatrix Von Storch told Sky News.
Mr Gabriel said yesterday that “we have to do it too” and that “we have wasted a great deal of time with unnecessary arguments”.
The AfD has managed to gain voters from various parties, according to AfD leader Frauke Petry.
Ahead of Sunday’s vote, Merkel had urged the population to reject the populists.
Her Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, however, said last week that this year, at least 100,000 refugees need to be deported.
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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.
