Merkel vows to win back support after election shakes her coalition
German Chancellor Angela Merkel conceded “a lot of trust has been lost” a day after her ruling coalition partners suffered a drubbing in state elections in Bavaria.
The chancellor yesterday vowed to win back disaffected voters, while insisting that her coalition could still be banked on “to act in a united way”.
The Christian Social Union (CSU) received 37 per cent of votes cast in yesterday’s state election in the south-east, down from 47.7 per cent five years ago. Mrs Merkel’s other coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), slumped to fifth in the state, with only 9.6 per cent.
The result has shaken an already embattled coalition in Berlin. The SPD regards itself as the alternative party of government but has suffered a steady decline since propping up Mrs Merkel in three of her four governments since 2005.
Jumping ship, however, would represent a leap into the unknown.
Leopold Traugott, a policy analyst at Open Europe, said the results would only add to doubts held by Mrs Merkel’s junior coalition partners.
“While the results will not lead to a huge destabilisation of the German government, it will see the mood between the coalition partners deteriorate further,” Mr Traugott said.
“Within the SPD doubts about whether being part of this coalition still makes sense for them are likely to grow.”
Despite falling short of predictions, the far-right AfD maintained its run of electoral breakthroughs, seizing fourth place with 10.6 per cent of the vote to enter the Bavarian parliament for the first time.
The big winner was the Green party, which vaulted to second place, capturing almost 17.5 per cent of the vote. Its leadership has set its sights on emerging as the leading force on the left.
The CSU leader and German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer dismissed calls to withdraw from Mrs Merkel’s coalition in the Bundestag. “We will do our bit to ensure the coalition can continue to do its work in a stable manner,” he said.
He said it was not the time to discuss his leadership, although that was not a view shared by all his colleagues on the right.
Daniel Gunther, the CDU premier of Schleswig-Holstein, called for Mr Seehofer’s departure. “It probably can’t work without personnel consequences”, he told Die Welt newspaper.
Mr Seehofer waged a public battle with Mrs Merkel during the campaign as he tried to outflank the chancellor and position the CSU as the country’s main anti-immigration party.
The Seehofer migrant master plan published by the Berlin government included measures to force the return of new asylum seekers. Critics slammed the strategy as appeasing the hardliners of the AfD.
Despite the collapse in support, the CSU is likely to cling to power in Bavaria, where the newly formed Free Voters party, which finished third, took 11.6 per cent of the vote.
The CSU leadership has already ruled out a coalition with the AfD, which now holds seats in 15 of Germany’s 16 state legislatures, and is less than enthusiastic about the possibility of governing with the Greens.