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2nd LD Writethru: Anti-migration party records large gains in German regional elections: exit polls

Xinhua, March 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Germany's anti-migration party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), has recorded remarkable gains in regional elections on Sunday and is able to break into three more German state parliaments, according to first projections.

Eligible voters have cast their ballots in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as eastern Saxony-Anhalt to elect three new regional parliaments.

The so-called "Super Sunday" vote is the biggest since a record number of refugees came to Germany, and is largely billed as a mood test for German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door policy towards refugees.

The AfD cracked the 10-percent mark in all three states, showed exit polls. In Saxony-Anhalt, the party made its biggest gains by winning 23 percent of the vote, becoming the second strongest force, just after Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The AfD, who has clearly positioned itself against Merkel's refugee and asylum policy, is able to break into all three state parliaments with remarkable gains in Sunday's elections.

Under German electoral law, winning five percent or more of the popular vote guarantees parliamentary representation.

"The voting behavior in Saxony-Anhalt worries me the most," said Sigmar Gabriel, German Vice-Chancellor and head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to the vote projections in Saxony-Anhalt, adding that the democratic parties in the state are more "vulnerable".

Merkel has been under intense pressure to change policy after 1.1 million refugees, many of them Syrians, arrived in Europe's biggest economy last year alone.

As dissent grew over her stance, the AfD capitalised on the darkening mood in the course of the refugee crisis and gained remarkable support over the past months.

The upstart party's calls for more limits on refugee influx play well with some German people who fear they are being inundated by foreigners after a record influx to the country in 2015. Endit