Right-wing AfD enters German parliament for 1st time, Merkel’s CDU leads vote – exit polls
The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will enter parliament for the first time in its history with around 13 percent of the vote in the German parliamentary election, exit polls show. Angela Merkel’s CDU is leading the polls with over 30 percent.
The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) received between 32 and 34 percent of the votes and is poised to form the largest faction in the German parliament, preliminary forecasts show.
However, its support has significantly fallen in comparison to the last election, when Merkel’s party received 41.5 percent of votes.
Some Germans seemed to be uncomfortable about Merkel’s fourth victory in a row. They told the peoples informer news agency that the country needs “change” following so many years of what they described as a “stalemate.”
“Politicians, our Chancellor, she is pretty good on the one hand, on the other hand she’s had 12 years in office now and so I think this is definitely time for a change to have fresh power, even if she is a powerful woman, but we need some fresh people. We need fresh ideas,” one Berlin resident said, adding, “We have kind of a stalemate, you know, [where] nothing is really moving.”
The AfD will enter parliament for the first time, after the anti-immigrant party secured the backing of around 13 percent of voters, according to exit polls. It is the first time the AfD has secured MPs, with the party failing to enter the legislative body back in 2013.
The party’s political success appears to not sit well with some Germans either.
“It's ridiculous, if you think about it, in my opinion it's a country that started two world wars,” a young man told the people's informer, commenting on the AfD election result.
“There's no guilt but there's always responsibility, and now we're going to have 90, I think it's up to 90, well I say openly racist people, in the Bundestag. And that's a shame for this country in my opinion," he added.
The current elections appear to have ended in failure for the Social Democrats (SPD), who only gained around 20 percent of the vote, their lowest return in the last 20 years.
However, even their losses look like turning out to be smaller than those of Merkel’s CDU, as the SPD lost 5.5 percent of votes compared to the last parliamentary polls, while for the CDU this figure amounts to as much as around 9 percent.
The SPD leader, Martin Schulz, meanwhile admitted defeat and announced that it was a “bitter day” for his party.
The elections were successful for the Free Democrats (FDP), who will now enter parliament with 10.5 percent support. Back in 2013, the party failed to clear the 5-percent threshold and did not enter the Bundestag.
Crowds of people have in the meantime gathered in front of the AfD HQ in Berlin, carrying banners reading “Racism kills” and chanting “Go away.”
Established in 2013 as a Euroskeptic party, the AfD became increasingly popular during the 2015 refugee crisis as it hijacked the anti-immigrant and anti-Islamist agenda, emerging as a right-wing populist force.
However, it also provoked discontent among a significant section of German society, with the provocative statements of its members leading to the party being repeatedly accused of Nazi sympathies – something that its leaders have always denied, instead portraying themselves as “concerned citizens.”
Following the publication of the exit poll results, Merkel gave a speech vowing to win back voters from the AfD.
