“This Is An Earthquake For Bavaria”: CSU Suffers Stunning Defeat, Loses Absolute Majority In Worst Result Since 1950
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sun, 10/14/2018
Voters in Germany’s economically dominant southern state of Bavaria delivered a stunning rebuke to the ruling Christian Social Union, in an election that underscored the evaporation of support for the parties in Angela Merkel’s grand coalition in Berlin.
With all eyes on Sunday’s Bavaria election, moments ago the first exit polls were published and showed a historic collapse for the ruling CSU party, which has ruled Bavaria continuously since 1957, and which saw its share of the vote collapse from 47.7$ in the 2013 election to just 35.5%, losing its absolute majority and suffering its worst result since 1950, as voters defected in their droves to the Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany.
The CSU was followed by the Greens which soared in the election, more than doubling to 18.5% from 8.6% in 2013, the FW also rose to 11% from 9.0%, in 2013, while the nationalist AfD was set to enter the Bavarian regional assembly for the first time with 11% of the vote. Meanwhile, the other establishment party, the left-of-center SPD also saw its support collapse from 20.6% in 2013 to just 10% today.
The full initial results from an ARD exit poll are as follows:
CSU: 35.5 %
Grüne: 18.5 %
FW: 11.5 %
AfD: 11.0 %
SPD: 10.0 %
FDP: 5.0 %
Linke: 3.5 %
Sonstige: 5.0 %
As the FT notes, the campaign was dominated by the divisive issue of immigration, in a sign of how the shockwaves from Merkel’s disastrous decision to let in more than a million refugees in 2015-16 are continuing to reverberate through German politics and to reshape the party landscape.
Alarmed by the rise of the anti-immigration, populist AfD, the CSU tried to outflank them by talking tough on immigration and picking fights with Ms Merkel over asylum policy.
But the strategy appeared to have backfired spectacularly by alienating tens of thousands of moderate CSU voters and driving them into the arms of the Greens.
Meanwhile, as support the CSU and SPD collapsed, the result confirmed the Greens’ status as the rising force in German politics. Running on a platform of open borders, liberal social values and the fight against climate change the party saw its support surge to 18.5%, from 8.4% in 2013. Meanwhile the AfD won 11%, and for the first time entered the Bavarian regional assembly.
“This is an earthquake for Bavaria,” said Jürgen Falter, a political scientist at the University of Mainz.
The Rest…HERE
