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Nationalist Party’s Challenge to Merkel Moves to Berlin State Elections Berlin Voters Deal Angela Merkel’s Party Another Blow
(about 7 hours later)
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party faces its next regional test on Sunday, as voters choose a new government for the State of Berlin, where a nationalist party threatens to draw enough support away from the chancellor’s conservatives to eject them from power. BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered the latest in a string of defeats in German state elections on Sunday, when her Christian Democratic Union was ousted from power in Berlin after its worst showing in the capital since World War II, according to exit polls
The election in Berlin, one of the country’s city-states, comes two weeks after voters in Ms. Merkel’s home state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, propelled the nationalist Alternative for Germany party to second place in the state legislature, ahead of her center-right Christian Democrats. Consequently, the outcome of Sunday’s vote could have wider implications for the country’s political landscape and Ms. Merkel’s future. Voters in Berlin turned out in higher numbers than in previous years, many responding to voter mobilization calls from the nationalist Alternative for Germany party. The anti-immigrant party is now poised to enter the city-state’s legislature for the first time, although its share of the vote, about 12 percent, was less than what it was two weeks ago in Ms. Merkel’s home state, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where it placed second, ahead of the chancellor’s conservative party.
The Alternative for Germany party is not as popular in the cosmopolitan capital, but it has campaigned hard against the chancellor’s decision last year to allow more than one million migrants, most of them without immigration documents, into the country. The party is expected to earn representation in several districts and could pull enough support away from Ms. Merkel’s party to oust it. Ms. Merkel’s party won about 18 percent of the vote in Berlin, not enough to allow it to continue as the junior partner in a governing coalition with the Social Democrats. The center-left Social Democratic Party earned about 22 percent of the vote and is expected to form a government with two other parties, the Greens and the Left Party, which each earned about 15 percent of the vote.
Polls show the center-left Social Democrats — who have led a coalition government in Berlin with the conservatives since 2011 — in the lead, followed by the Christian Democrats. But strong showings by the Left and Greens parties could provide the Social Democrats with other options for coalition partners. “We are all angry that the AfD got in,” Michael Müller, Berlin’s mayor and the Social Democrats’ leading candidate, told cheering supporters in the capital, referring to the Alternative for Germany party. “But I can assure you that Berlin will remain an international city, open to the world.”
The chancellor has in recent days attacked the center-left mayor, Michael Müller, blaming him for the Berlin authorities’ inability to adequately register refugees, which left people stranded for weeks and underscored the strains already affecting the capital’s bureaucracy. The result proved that the Alternative for Germany party is not as popular in the cosmopolitan capital as it is elsewhere in Germany, but it managed to draw considerable support, mostly from the eastern districts of the city. It campaigned hard against the chancellor’s decision last year to allow more than one million migrants, most of them without immigration documents, into the country.
Ms. Merkel, who governs on the national level in a coalition with the Social Democrats, blamed Mr. Müller for refusing to be held accountable for the chaotic circumstances faced by the 79,000 refugees who arrived last year in the capital. “Based on my own experience, I know that leaders of government are always responsible and they will be made responsible,” the chancellor said in an interview with the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel. Many of the former supporters of the chancellor’s party drifted to the liberal Free Democratic Party, which voters returned to the state legislature with about 6 percent of the vote, after it was ousted in the 2011 election.
Yet Ms. Merkel has been criticized within much of her own conservative bloc for allowing the influx of refugees to become a crisis in the first place. The chancellor in recent days attacked Mr. Müller, the center-left mayor, blaming him for the Berlin authorities’ inability to adequately register refugees, which left people stranded for weeks and underscored the strains already affecting the capital’s bureaucracy.
Horst Seehofer, the leader of a Bavarian sister party to Ms. Merkel’s conservatives, has been among her loudest critics. In an interview released on Friday, Mr. Seehofer threatened to withhold his party’s support for her candidacy in 2017, unless she agreed to set a limit on the number of new refugees the country would take in. Ms. Merkel has not yet announced whether she will run for a fourth term when the country elects a new government next autumn. Ms. Merkel, who governs on the national level in a coalition with the Social Democrats, had blamed Mr. Müller for refusing to be held accountable for the chaotic circumstances faced by the 79,000 refugees who arrived last year in the capital.
Speaking last week to supporters in the capital, Ms. Merkel defended her policies, pointing to the spirit of openness as a core element of Berlin’s identity. “Based on my own experience, I know that leaders of government are always responsible and they will be made responsible,” the chancellor said in an interview with the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel before the vote.
“Berlin, its whole history, the success of what was West Berlin, its openness has served it well and must be preserved,” she said. Yet many in Ms. Merkel’s own conservative bloc have criticized her for allowing the influx of refugees to become a crisis in the first place.
Indeed, the German capital has grown more diverse in the 27 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Legions of artists and entrepreneurs from across the globe have flocked to Berlin, now home to 3.5 million people, nearly 2.5 million of whom are eligible to vote. Horst Seehofer, the leader of a Bavarian sister party to Ms. Merkel’s conservatives, has been among her loudest critics. In an interview released on Friday, Mr. Seehofer threatened to withhold his party’s support for her candidacy in 2017, unless she agreed to set a limit on the number of new refugees the country would take in. Ms. Merkel has not yet announced whether she will run for a fourth term when the country elects a new government in autumn next year.