MERKEL’S PARTY PUNISHED IN STATE VOTE

BERLIN Voters handed Angela Merkel’s conservatives their worst-ever result in Hamburg on Sunday, punishing them for flirting with the far-right in an eastern state and descending into a messy leadership battle.

Projected results also indicated that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) would be ejected from the Hamburg parliament just four days after a racist gunman killed 11 people, including himself, in the western town of Hanau.

It would be the first time the party, which has capitalized on anger over Merkel’s open-door migrant policy especially in the former Communist East, was kicked out of a state assembly.

“Nazis out,” chanted supporters of the victorious Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens as they celebrated in Germany’s second-biggest city. The two are set to continue ruling together in the northern city-state.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered after party leader and Merkel protégée Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer said she would stand aside, blowing open the race to succeed the chancellor and throwing the party into turmoil.

The CDU slipped into third place, scoring just 11.3 per cent. The AFD were in last place on 4.7 per cent, just short of the 5.0 per cent threshold needed to get into the state parliament.

The Greens were the biggest winners, reflecting their national strength driven by growing fears about climate change. They roughly doubled their vote to 25.4 per cent and national co-leader Robert Habeck declared it a “fantastic result.”