Anti Merkel far-right AfD surges: exit polls

DRESDEN, Germany: Germany´s far-right AfD party surged to new strengths in elections for two eastern states on Sunday, exit polls said, reflecting anger over Chancellor Angela Merkel´s migrant policy and a wealth gap 30 years after the Berlin Wall fell. The Alternative for Germany became the second-strongest party in regional parliaments in both Saxony and Brandenburg, the state which surrounds the capital Berlin, according to the public television exit polls.

In Saxony, where the radical anti-Islam Pegida street movement was born, the AfD scored 27.5 percent, up sharply from 9.7 percent five years ago, broadcasters ARD and ZDF forecast. And it won between 22.5 and 24.5 percent in Brandenburg state, compared to 12.2 percent in 2014, said the initial projections. The outright winners in Saxony were Merkel´s Christian Democrats (CDU), who scored 32 to 33 percent, while Brandenburg was held by the Social Democrats (SPD), who came first with just over 27 percent. AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland said “we are satisfied in Brandenburg as well as in Saxony” where his party had “punished” Merkel´s conservatives. He conceded that “yes, we are not yet the strongest force... We are working on it. Though broadly anticipated in pre-election surveys, the outcome delivered another slap to the fragile coalition government of Merkel´s CDU and their junior partners the SPD.

Aside from railing against asylum-seekers and Islam, the AfD has protested against plans to shutter coal mines to protect the climate and capitalised on resentment about perceived injustices since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. “Let´s complete the change”, it had vowed in the campaign, referring to the peaceful revolution that ended the one-party state and in 1990 brought national reunification. Voter turnout was high as the tense political atmosphere mobilised both AfD supporters and their opponents.