Serious Merkel's Party Collapsed in German Elections!

Merkel's party suffers rout in Berlin in migrant policy backlash

5 Hours Ago
Czech Republic's Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the government headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic August 25, 2016.
David W. Cerny | Reuters

Czech Republic's Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the government headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic August 25, 2016.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party suffered its second electoral blow in two weeks on Sunday, slumping to its lowest level since 1990 in a Berlin state vote that rejected her open-door refugee policy.

Voters turned to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which with 12.9 percent of the vote will enter its 10th regional assembly among the country's 16 states.

A year before a national election, the result is set to raise pressure on Merkel and deepen rifts in her conservative camp, with more sniping expected from her CSU allies in Bavaria.

The CSU's Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder was quick to call it the "second massive wake-up call" in two weeks.

"A long-term and massive loss in trust among traditional voters threatens the conservative bloc," he told the Bild daily, adding Merkel's right-left national coalition had to win back support by changing course on its immigration policy.

Merkel's Christian Democrats were routed in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two weeks ago, triggering calls from the CSU for her to toughen up her migrant policy.

In particular, they want a cap of 200,000 refugees per year, which Merkel rejects.

The secretary general of Merkel's CDU, Peter Tauber, partly blamed the CSU for the losses in Berlin, which only 27 years ago was the front line of the Cold War.

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"If there is a dispute within the conservative bloc, it doesn't help us on the ground - especially if this dispute is carried out in the way it is being done from Munich," he said.

A backlash against her migrant policy has raised questions about whether Merkel, Europe's most powerful leader, will stand for a fourth term next year. Given a dearth of options in her party, however, she is still the most likely candidate.

SPD keep control but support down

Projections from broadcaster ZDF put Merkel's Christian Democrats on 18 percent, down from 23.3 percent in the last election in Berlin in 2011.

The Social Democrats (SPD) also lost support, falling to 22.4 percent from 28.3 percent, but remained the biggest party and are likely to ditch the CDU from their current coalition.

The losses for both the biggest parties point to the further fragmentation of Germany's political landscape, raising the possibility of different coalitions in future.

The SPD, Merkel's junior coalition partner at the national level, wants to form a coalition with the Greens and possibly the radical Left party in the city-state of Berlin.

The Greens won 15.9 percent of the Berlin vote, down 1.7 percentage points from 2011, while the Left party was up 4 points at 15.7 percent, according to ZDF.

The AfD, founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, was the big winner. It has in the last year played to voters' fears about the integration of the roughly one million migrants who entered Germany last year.

"From zero to double digits, that's unique for Berlin. The grand coalition has been voted out - not yet at the national level, but that will happen next year," said AfD candidate Georg Pazderski to cheering supporters after the results.

Commentators said the result indicated that the party looked poised to enter the lower house of parliament in 2017.

"With the Berlin result, the AfD has consolidated its position and shown it can appeal to voters across the board - it is now represented in a big city, eastern German states and in more affluent western states like Baden-Wuerttemberg," said Thomas Jaeger, political scientist at Cologne University.

How silly can she be? She opened the doors to her country in a great humanitarian gesture. When the ingrates started to sexually harass her citizens in a sadly barbaric way, instead of acting forcibly and with resolve, she began giving excuses. Not realising the damage she was doing to her people she was lecturing the Brit about staying on in the EU when the majority were shocked by the conduct of the refugees and the free of people across the borders at will.

scroobal said:

How silly can she be? She opened the doors to her country in a great humanitarian gesture. When the ingrates started to sexually harass her citizens in a sadly barbaric way, instead of acting forcibly and with resolve, she began giving excuses. Not realising the damage she was doing to her people she was lecturing the Brit about staying on in the EU when the majority were shocked by the conduct of the refugees and the free of people across the borders at will.

Click to expand...

She is unlucky to be in a racist cuntry. In Sinkieland such xenophobes are minority and she will definitely win with super land slide with Sinkie voters!

dear sinkies, please be prepared for EURO recession. not joking, they may not make it this time, in a few months time. buy gold, buy USD. buy whatever financial instrument denominated in USD. that's my genuine advice. not joking, be warned. this is unlike previosu global recession that can recover. it's the can down the road no more.

It seems that most of the German voters do not have much confidence in any of their political parties, mainstream or right-wing. The main winners all garner less than 20% of the votes. In our local elections, even a perennial loser like Chee can gather close to 30% of the votes. A rookie PAP candidate in an SMC can get easily 40%.

Putting aside the migrant issue, it looks like Merkel and her party has been doing a lousy job running their own town councils unlike our good and dedicated PAP MPs.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37403242

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Europe
Russian election: Big victory for Putin-backed party United Russia
3 hours ago
From the section Europe
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Media caption"When she thinks no-one is looking, she takes a pile of ballot papers... stands at the ballot box, and stuffs them in", reports Steve Rosenberg in Moscow
United Russia, backed by President Vladimir Putin, has won a majority in the country's parliamentary election, far ahead of rival parties.
With 93% of the votes counted, the party has secured 54.2% of ballots and 343 seats in the 450-member parliament, officials say.
Mr Putin said his party had "achieved a very good result", however the turnout was a record low of 47.8%.
The Communist Party and nationalist LDPR both secured just over 13%.
The party A Just Russia gained just over 6% of the votes. All four parties are loyal to Mr Putin and dominated the last parliament, or State Duma.
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Mr Putin has enjoyed 17 years in power as either president or prime minister.
'Utmost regret'
Voting irregularities were reported in several areas and the head of the election commission suggested that the results might be cancelled in three polling stations.
Liberal opposition parties failed to get enough votes for party-list representation. "To my utmost regret, not one other party managed to get over the 5% barrier," said Central Election Commission head Ella Pamfilova.
The two main opposition parties allowed to field candidates, Yabloko and Parnas, received just 1.89% and 0.7% respectively.
Half the seats were also being contested in constituencies but even there the small number of opposition candidates failed to win.
Dmitry Medvedev (L) and Vladimir PutinImage copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Mr Putin (R) appeared alongside Mr Medvedev to congratulate United Russia party activists
The result increases United Russia's majority, after it achieved 49% of the vote in the 2011 Duma elections. The party, led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, will take more seats in parliament, up from 238.
However, the turnout, based on partial figures, was the lowest in Russia's modern history and significantly down on the 60% turnout in 2011.
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Farce and swagger
Spoiled ballotImage copyrightSCREENSHOT - INSTAGRAM
Image caption
A spoiled ballot reads: "Against all - Pikachu I vote for you!" - a reference to the Pokemon Go game
Election commission head Ella Pamfilova - a respected human rights activist - said she was "fully confident that the elections are proceeding in a quite legitimate way". But later she warned that results at three polling stations might be cancelled because of irregularities.
There were reports of serious irregularities in one Siberian region, with suggestions of "carousel" voting - people bussed around polling stations - in the city of Barnaul.
In the Caucasus, youths smashed up a polling station in the Khunzakh district of Dagestan, accusing officials of stuffing ballots to favour one candidate, Ms Pamfilova said.
And in the southern region of Rostov a criminal case was opened for alleged electoral fraud, she said.
Some voters unhappy with the election posted pictures of their spoiled ballots on Twitter and Instagram. Some of them mockingly voted for "Pikachu" - fictional creatures from the hugely popular Pokemon Go game.
Chechen leader gets 98%
Voter in Tsentoroi, Chechnya, 18 Sep 16Image copyrightAFP
Image caption
A voter in Chechnya sports a Ramzan Kadyrov T-shirt
For the first time, people voted in Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned internationally. United Russia won all the region's constituency seats, in a vote that prompted protests in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov - a firm ally of Mr Putin who runs his troubled North Caucasus republic with an iron fist - swept to victory with 98% support, with 78% of votes counted.
Vote-rigging sparked big anti-government street protests after Russia's last parliamentary election in 2011.
In the system of "managed democracy" crafted by the Kremlin, it was unthinkable that President Putin's control of parliament would weaken, the BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
Mr Putin will be hoping that this time his personal popularity, combined with widespread apathy, will mean that Russians accept the result, he says.
The independent election monitoring group Golos said that "although the level of violations in this election campaign was lower than in 2011 there were many in the run-up to the voting".
It said the elections were "far from what could be called really free and fair". The number of independent observers at polling stations was lower than before, and there were cases of ballot-stuffing, carousel voting and other abuses, Golos complained.
'Party of power in power again' - media reaction
Woman votes in MoscowImage copyrightEPA
Image caption
Reports say there were fewer voting irregularities than in 2011
Russian papers see the result largely as a vote of confidence in President Putin - and as pretty much predictable.
"The election is primarily an informal referendum on trust in the person who is in charge of making all the key decisions," tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets declares.
The news website Gazeta.ru says the vote "brought no sensations", while the influential business daily Kommersant's editorial is simply headlined: "The party of power is in power again".
Russian state Rossiya 24 TV mentioned allegations of election fraud, but said they were not significant and were being investigated.
But business daily Vedomosti says that - despite the authorities' promises - the election "was not a model of honesty".
Source: BBC Monitoring
After the vote Mr Putin visited the headquarters of United Russia with Mr Medvedev to congratulate activists on their victory.
"We know that life is hard for people, there are lots of problems, lots of unresolved problems," Mr Putin said. "Nevertheless, we have this result."
Despite Russia's economic malaise and tensions with the West over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, the poor turnout reflected widespread apathy among voters.
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