German far-right beats Merkel's party into 3rd place

BERLIN

Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a damaging defeat on Sunday as Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) beat her conservatives in a key regional election.

The AfD managed to win 20.8 percent of the vote in its first election in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, adopting an anti-immigration and anti-Islam platform amid widespread fears in Germany about the refugee crisis.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) -- which together with the Social Democrats (SPD) has ruled the state since 2006 -- was pushed into third place, its worst result in the region. The CDU lost about four percent of its vote share, bringing it down to 19 percent.

The CDU’s coalition SPD partner also lost five percent but remained the biggest party in the state, securing 30.6 percent of the vote.

Merkel took responsibility for the result and said a failure to convince many concerned citizens about the government’s refugee policy played a role.

Speaking during a news conference at the G20 summit in China, Merkel said: “All of us now have to think about how we can earn their trust back, and of course I should be the first one to do that.”

Merkel defended her 2015 decision to open doors for refugees fleeing wars and conflicts, and underlined Germany’s humanitarian responsibility.

She argued that EU-Turkey cooperation to stop illegal migration and improve conditions for refugees in the region was yielding positive results, significantly decreasing the numbers of newcomers.

Merkel asked for more time to address the remaining problems.

The AfD -- which was founded only three years ago as a protest movement -- has won seats in nine out of Germany’s 16 state parliaments so far.

Sunday’s election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was seen as symbolically important as it was in Merkel's home constituency.

Recent polls show national AfD support exceeding 10 percent and the party is likely to enter the federal parliament in a general election next year.

The AfD narrowly failed to pass a five percent electoral threshold in 2013, a result which excluded it from the federal parliament.

Germany has witnessed growing anti-refugee and anti-Muslim sentiment in recent years, triggered by propaganda from far-right and populist parties which have exploited the refugee crisis and fears of religious extremism and terrorist groups.

Europe's largest economy accepted more than one million refugees last year; most of these were Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.