Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a humiliating defeat in German regional elections on her home turf on Sunday as voters turned their backs on her liberal refugee policy and gave the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a political triumph.
A triumphant AfD pushed the chancellor’s centre-right Christian Democrats into third place in the vote in rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with both coming behind the Social Democrats, the region’s dominant political grouping.
“We are writing history in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,” said Leif-Erik Holm, the AfD’s lead candidate. “Perhaps today is the beginning of the end of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel.”