AfD’s Victory in State Elections Hailed as ‘Beginning of the End for Merkel’
SputnikNews.com
05.09.2016
Sunday’s state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania saw the right-wing populist, Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party trounce the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel in her home state. Commenting, Sputnik Deutschland suggested that this may be the beginning of the end for Merkel’s chancellorship.
AfD, a new political party that was founded just over three years ago, took 21.9% of the vote in Sunday’s election, with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) falling to third place, with 19%, behind AfD and the ruling Social Democrats (SPD), who won 30%. The CDU result is down 4% from the 23% it secured in 2011, with the Social Democrats also down, by 5%, compared to the 35.6% they received in 2011.
The far-left Die Linke Party finished fourth, with 12.9% of the vote, down from 18.4% in 2011. Commenting on Sunday’s showing, Leif-Erik Holm, the leader of AfD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, jubilantly described his election result, telling reporters that “perhaps this was the beginning of the end of Merkel’s chancellorship.”
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