Merkel’s party suffers defeats in local elections, exit polls suggest

PanARMENIAN.Net - The party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has suffered defeats in two of three states holding regional elections, exit polls suggest, according to BBC News

They indicate the Christian Democrats lost support in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland Palatinate, but remain the largest party in Saxony-Anhalt. The anti-migrant AfD achieved gains in all three states, exit polls indicate.

The elections were seen as a test of support for Chancellor Merkel's policy of accommodating refugees.

More than a million migrants and refugees entered Germany in 2015.

In the western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a former stronghold of the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), support for the party reached a historic low of about 27%, the exit polls suggest.

They say the Green-led coalition currently in power won the election.

In Saxony-Anhalt, a poor, eastern state where the CDU and the Social Democrats govern together, that coalition looks set to remain in office but the exit polls say Alternative Fuer Deutschland (AdF) won about 22% of the vote.

The Social Democrats are set maintain their hold on Rhineland-Palatinate, a state the CDU had hoped to capture.

Already represented in five of Germany's 16 regional parliaments, the AfD has campaigned on slogans such as "Secure the borders" and "Stop the asylum chaos".

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Saturday that gains for the AfD would not change his government's stance on immigration. He said: "There is a clear position that we stand by: humanity and solidarity. We will not change our position now.

But in Berlin on Saturday, about 2,000 right-wing demonstrators carrying German flags chanted "Merkel must go!" and "We are the people!"