German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday took responsibility for the electoral losses of her Christian Democrats (CDU) in her home state, but defended her course in the refugee crisis.
Merkel said at the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in China that “the decisions taken in the last few months were right. Of course this has something to do with refugee policies, so I am responsible.”
At G20, eight per cent supports the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) replaced Merkel’s CDU as the second-strongest party in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where a national debate about refugee integration and the threat of terrorism crowded local issues.
The German chancellor, however, maintained that her decisions in recent months were right.
Earlier, the CDU General Secretary, Peter Tauber, had said that Merkel’s government had introduced series of measures to reduce refugee influx, integrate the 1.1 million migrants that arrived in 2015 and improve security in the country.
He said “it takes time for the measures to work and to win back the trust that has been lost.
“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.
“Today could mark the beginning of the end of the chancellery of Angela Merkel,” Tauber said.
The CDU fell to 19 per cent of the vote in the North-Eastern state in the former East Germany.
However, is nonetheless likely to form another coalition with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which won 30.6-per-cent of the vote in Sunday’s poll.
Erwin Sellering, the SPD premier in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said that the state should be proud of what it achieved since German reunification in 1990.
The AfD capitalised on widespread discontent about the arrival of 1.1 million migrants in Germany in 2015, which it argued resulted from Merkel’s promise of sanctuary to Syrian refugees.
Charlotte Knobloch, former Head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said that its eurosceptic, anti-migrant message propelled it into third place in national opinion polls, likely to enter the Bundestag parliament after a general election next year.
“The fact that a right-wing extremist party that agitates and mobilises against minorities in a disgustingly blunt manner can rise in such an unbridled way is a nightmare come true,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, leaders of right-wing parties in Italy and France applauded the AfD’s electoral success and Marine Le Pen of the right-wing Front National said “what was not possible yesterday has become possible: the patriots of the AfD have swept away Mrs Merkel’s party`.”
Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right Northern League, said “fantastic vote in Germany, a big slap for Merkel in her region and a triumph for alternative for Germany, allied with the League and Le Pen.”
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