Merkel’s party ‘falls to third in home state’

A nationalist anti-immigration party performed strongly in a state election yesterday in the region where German Chancellor Angela Merkel has her political base, looking likely to overtake her conservative party to take second place, exit polls indicated last night.

Polls for ARD and ZDF public television put support for Alternative for Germany, or AFD, in yesterday’s election for the state legislature in Mecklenburg-western Pomerania around 21 per cent. They put support for Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats at 19 or 20 per cent, which would be their worst result yet in the state.

The centre-left Social Democrats, who lead the outgoing state government, were expected to be the strongest party with about 30 per cent support.

Mecklenburg-western Pomerania is home to 1.6 million people and is a relative political lightweight. But it is the state where Mrs Merkel has her parliamentary constituency, and yesterday’s vote was the first of five regional votes.