From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 13, 2016
In blow to Merkel, right-wing party surges in regional elections
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleChancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffers a major setback in key state polls Sunday over the German leader’s liberal refugee policy, while the right-wing populist AfD scoops up support from angry voters.
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) loses in two out of three states in regional elections, scoring a historic low in its stronghold Baden-Wuerttemberg where it came in after the Greens, according to estimates published by public broadcasters ARD and ZDF shortly after voting closed at 1700 GMT.
The populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had caused a storm by suggesting police may have to shoot at migrants to stop them entering the country, records double-digit support in the first elections they have stood for in all three regions.
AfD is projected to garner as much as 21.8 percent of the vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt — making it the second biggest political force there after the CDU.
— AFP
(AFP / John MACDOUGALL)
The Times of Israel Community.