Reuters — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party suffered its second electoral blow in two weeks on Sunday, slumping to its lowest level since 1990 in a Berlin state vote that rejected her open-door refugee policy.
Voters turned to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which with 12.9 percent of the vote will enter its 10th regional assembly among the country’s 16 states.
A year before a national election, the result is set to raise pressure on Merkel and deepen rifts in her conservative camp, with more sniping expected from her Christian Social Union allies in Bavaria.
(The CSU is the Bavarian branch of Merkel’s CDU and operates only in Bavaria)
The CSU’s Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder was quick to call it the “second massive wake-up call” in two weeks.
“A long-term and massive loss in trust among traditional voters threatens the conservative bloc,” he told the Bild daily, adding Merkel’s right-left national coalition had to win back support by changing course on its immigration policy.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats were routed in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two weeks ago, triggering calls from the CSU for her to toughen up her migrant policy.
In particular, they want a cap of 200,000 refugees per year, which Merkel rejects.
The secretary general of Merkel’s CDU, Peter Tauber, partly blamed the CSU for the losses in Berlin, which only 27 years ago was the front line of the Cold War.
A backlash against her migrant policy has raised questions about whether Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, will stand for a fourth term next year.
Last week Wolfgang Schauble announced that he would seek another term in the Bundestag, fuelling suspicions that the German finance minister still has an eye on succeeding Angela Merkel.
At 73, he is the longest-serving German MP, having first been elected in 1972. Germany has a tradition of elderly leaders set by the post-war chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who stepped down at 87.
Mr Schauble, who has used a wheelchair since an assassination attempt in 1990, came to the forefront of European politics with his tough attitude towards debt relief for Greece.
Mr Schauble was at one stage thought the most likely successor to Helmut Kohl as chancellor until he became embroiled in the party funding scandal which brought down Mr Kohl and left the path clear for Mrs Merkel.
The results:
Berlin is likely to get the first leftwing triple-coalition government in its history, after Angela Merkel’s CDU party and the ruling Social Democrats both plummeted to their lowest result in the Germany capital.
Centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) came out top with 21.6% (from 28.3 %) of the vote, ahead of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on 17.5%( from 23.3%). Leftwing Die Linke came third on 15.7%, ahead of the Greens on 15.1%.
Anti-immigration populists Alternative für Deutschland founded in 2013 are set to enter the German capital’s state parliament for the first time, with 14.1%.
