2016-09-04 18:56:00

Anti-Migrant Party seen beating Germany's CDU in State election


(Vatican Radio) Voters in a state in north-eastern Germany voted Sunday in an election that was seen as a serious challenge for Chancellor Angela Merkel as an anti-migration and anti-Islam party was expected to perform better than her Christian Democratic Union party (CDU). 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Sunday's poll in the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is one of the biggest tests to date of Chancellor Merkel’s migrant and 
refugee policies. 

Her parliamentary constituency is in the region with 1.3 million eligible voters and losing here will put Merkel in a weaker position ahead of national elections next year 

Opinion polls suggested that the three-year-old anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AFD) could overtake Merkel’s conservative CDU party in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

Surveys show the German leader's popularity has declined after she took a decision that led to more than 1 million migrants fleeing war and poverty being registered in her country in 2015. That's good news for AFD's main candidate Leif-Erik Holm.

"I hope we will become the strongest party" he told reporters."We hear many signals from many families and companies. They say yes, yes, we will all vote for the AfD. I am hoping for a result well into the 20s [percentage points]," the candidate added.  

WEAKER POSITION

If confirmed, it will put Merkel in difficult position as the national poll is expected in September 2017.

Mecklenburg has been run for a decade by the parties that currently govern Germany. The centre-left Social Democrats lead the regional government, with Merkel’s Christian Democrats as their junior partner.

The current state's prime minister Erwin Sellering made a last appeal to voters not to vote for AfD. 

He says: "I have always said don't give your vote away because they are the once that don't want to work with us. They want to feel frustration and protest." 

Sunday’s election is the first of five state votes due before the national poll. The next election is in Berlin on September 18th.








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