Nationalists set for gains in German state election

Lorenz Caffier, top candidate of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, casts his vote in Neustrelitz, eastern Germany, for the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, on Sunday. That could put it in a position to overtake Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats for second place. Polls suggest that the 3-year-old Alternative for Germany can expect to win over 20 percent of votes Sunday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a coastal region where Merkel has her parliamentary constituency.

Chancellor Merkel’s refugee policies were a prominent issue in the campaign for Sunday’s election, which came a year after she chose to let in migrants from Hungary.

“The fact is that the government in this state was a mirror image of the government federally, of the Social Democrats and Cristian Democrats in coalition, and both parties until this point have maintained the fact that the refugee policy is the right one”.

Although Merkel won praise at first, the early optimism has given way to fears over how Europe’s biggest economy will manage to integrate the million people who arrived a year ago alone.

“Merkel’s catastrophic refugee policy always plays a role”, AfD’s co-chairwoman Frauke Petry told broadcaster ZDF.

“This result, and the strong performance of AfD, is bitter for many, for everyone in our party”, Peter Tauber, the general secretary of her Christian Democrats, said in Berlin.

He said the state government’s positive record took a back seat for many voters, “because among a recognizable part, there was an explicit wish to voice displeasure and protest, and we saw that particularly strongly in the discussion about refugees”.

Merkel has stuck to her insistence that “we will manage” the refugee crisis, but has acknowledged there is “a very contentious mood”.

“The icing on the cake is that we have left Merkel´s CDU behind us. maybe that is the beginning of the end of Merkel´s time as chancellor”, he said.

AfD veteran strategist and deputy chairman Alexander Gauland said Sunday’s result had great symbolic power ahead of next year’s federal election and would add impetus to Berlin city-state’s election on September 18.

Her decision has left her increasingly isolated in Europe, and exposed her to heavy criticism at home, including from her conservative allies.

Sunday’s election was for the state legislature in a single state, with a population of about 1.6 million.

Although not an imminent danger to Ms Merkel, who signalled Friday that she’ll decide by December whether to run again for the chancellorship, the result will renew pressure within her party as members bristle at the resistance to her stance on migration. Popular Social Democratic governor Erwin Sellering has governed with Merkel’s party as his junior partner.

Founded in 2013, the AfD now has won seats in nine of the 16 state assemblies across the country.

There’s no realistic prospect at present of AfD going into government.

In the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt, Alternative for Germany won 24.2 per cent, its best state result yet.