Anti-immigrant AfD beats Merkel’s CDU in state election: Poll

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats fell to third place in a state election on Sunday behind the centre-left Social Democrats

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats fell to third place in a state election on Sunday behind the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, TV exit polls showed.

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In a stinging defeat for Merkel one year ahead of parliamentary elections, the upstart AfD won 21% of the vote in their first election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state by campaigning hard against the chancellor’s policies on refugees, according to an exit poll by the ARD TV network.

The SPD, which has ruled the rural state on the Baltic coast with the CDU as junior coalition partners since 2006, won 30.5% of the vote, down from 35.6% in the last election in 2011. The CDU won 19%, down from 23% in 2011, and its worst result ever in the state, the broadcaster said.

The far-left Left Party won 12.5%, down from 18.4% five years ago, while the pro-environment Greens won 5%, down from 8.7% The far-right NPD was knocked out of the state assembly, falling below the 5% threshold for the first time since 2006 with 3.5% down from 6% in 2011.

Around 1.33 million voters are electing a new regional parliament for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is also home to Merkel’s constituency Stralsund.

The polls come exactly a year after the German leader made the momentous decision to let in tens of thousands of Syrian and other migrants marooned in eastern European countries. Although she won praise at first, the mood has since turned.