German Chancellor Merkel on track for 4th term as far right set to enter Parliament, projections show

 BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on course to claim a fourth term in office Sunday even as the far right was set to earn seats in Parliament for the first time in more than half a century, according to projected results released by German broadcasters Sunday after a nationwide vote.

The results, if confirmed, represent an affirmation of Merkel’s emphasis on Germany’s stability and economic prosperity at a time of upheaval elsewhere around the globe. They clear the way for her to extend her 12-year stewardship to 16, which would tie the record for postwar Germany.

But the apparent surge in support for the far right reflected the lingering resentment among a significant portion of the electorate in Germany toward Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than a million asylum seekers amid the European refugee crisis.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), which was only founded four years ago, was on pace to take third place with about 13 percent, according to the networks.

Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union won around 33 percent —down several points from what most pre-election polls had predicted — while the center-left Social Democrats were expected to claim about 20 percent.
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Merkel casts vote in election she’s expected to win
German Chancellor Angela Merkel cast her vote on Sept. 24 in an election that her Christian Democratic Union party is expected to win, allowing her to serve a fourth term. (Reuters)

Reflecting the fragmentation of the German electorate, three other parties —the left-wing Die Linke, the pro-business Free Democrats and the pro-environment Green Party -- were all pegged around 9 or 10 percent, and were all set to enter a Bundestag that will now be crowded with six parties.

Despite Merkel’s victory, the mood among her senior allies was less than joyful. “I was hoping for a better result, but we met our goal of becoming the strongest party, and Merkel will remain chancellor,” party parliamentary chair Volker Kauder told broadcaster ARD.

At the party’s election night gathering in central Berlin, supporters initially cheered the release of the exit polls. But some were disappointed the party didn’t manage a larger share of the vote.

“I think the result is disappointing,” said Stefan Kleinmeier, 42, a lobbyist for Vattenfall, an energy company. “The CDU has governed well in the past, and I expected this to show in the results.”

The AfD, meanwhile, was celebrating the projection, which matched its highest figure in pre-election polls.

“Our idealism brought us here,” Alexander Gauland, the party’s co-leader, told cheering supporters. “We’re going to get Germany back.”

The SPD, meanwhile, expressed disappointment in the results and immediately promised to go into opposition, rather than join Merkel’s party in the same grand coalition that has govered Germany for the past four years.

The decision means Merkel is likely to pursue a three-way deal with the Free Democrats and the Greens, a potentially tricky arrangement given the two junior parties’ differences on key policies.

From the Baltic Sea to the Alps, 61 million Germans were eligible to choose the government Sunday in Europe’s largest economy and most important political player.

Under cloudy September skies across much of the nation, Merkel’s backers said they saw the chancellor as a force for much-needed calm.

“It doesn’t look good in the world. If you listen to that guy in America and also in the East with his atomic weapons, you get scared,” said Elida Baller, 84, referring to President Trump and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader.

But the fact that the AfD was poised to claim third place showed that all is not placid in German politics. The party’s support was higher than many Germans had thought possible in a country where the memory of extreme-right-wing government is a source of profound national shame.

“For me, the AfD is a Nazi party,” said Hannelore Weimann, 81, after voting in Berlin. “I experienced World War II and I have seen the history and I don’t understand how people can vote for a party like this.”

The party was founded in 2013 as a protest against European bailouts for Greece, and that year it barely missed the 5 percent cutoff for making it into the Bundestag, the German Parliament.

But its popularity has surged on the back of resistance to Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open the country’s borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war, oppression and extreme poverty.

Jens Töpfer, 36, an engineer who cast one of his two ballots Sunday for the AfD, said he is afraid that Germany is being overrun by refugees. And that could bring dire consequences for the next generation, he said, pointing to his 2-year-old son.

“Refugees have a different culture that doesn’t fit in here,” he said. “They should go back where they came from and fight for their freedom and reconstruction.”

In an otherwise somnolent campaign marked by little disagreement or rancor, the AfD’s campaign posters were inflammatory.

One featured swimsuit-clad women at the beach along with the phrase, “Burqas? We prefer bikinis.” Another showed the belly of a pregnant white woman and the tag­line, “New Germans? We’ll make our own” — a counterpoint to those arguing that the refugees will help an aging Germany restock its young workforce.

But at a time when the far right has roiled political establishments across the Western world, its appeal has appeared to be limited in Germany. Its support fell in polls earlier this year as the refugee crisis receded from view, though it ticked up again in recent weeks.

The other main parties, meanwhile, have been united in speaking out against the AfD and vowing not to cooperate with the group. In the campaign’s final days, a close Merkel ally said voters should stay home rather than support the AfD. Merkel’s Social Democratic challenger, Martin Schulz, called the far-right party “the gravediggers of democracy.”

Some voters said Sunday that they were motivated to try to block the AfD’s rise. Abdessamad Mendoui, a 75-year-old who immigrated to Germany 55 years ago from Morocco, walked slowly to his polling place in the western city of Frankfurt. He said that his health has not been good and that he is not typically a political person. But he said he felt obligated to vote.

“We have to counter the right-wing people,” he said.

Mendoui cast his ballot for the SPD, which as late as this spring was expected to offer Merkel a vigorous challenge as she sought to extend her reign to 16 years — a mark that would tie the German postwar record, now held by Helmut Kohl.

But the SPD’s campaign, which party leader Schulz built on making Germany a more socially just and equitable nation, never caught fire, and Merkel faced little serious resistance.

She will, however, likely have to conduct delicate negotiations to form a new government. Her party has governed with the SPD for eight of the past 12 years.

With another grand coalition ruled out, Merkel’s choices may be limited. A union with her favored partner, the Free Democrats, wouldn’t be enough for a majority. That means she will likely be forced to turn to the Green Party for help in what would be known as a “Jamaica coalition” — a reference to the parties’ colors, which match the Caribbean nation’s flag.

A three-party government would be new for modern Germany and could limit Merkel’s room to maneuver as she attempts to bridge critical divides.

But the parties also agree on much, part of the strikingly solid establishment consensus that Merkel has forged in her 12 years as chancellor.

It’s a consensus that has spawned a backlash among voters who want some sort of alternative.

In Brandenburg an der Havel, a small town west of Berlin, voters offered starkly different visions for the new government Sunday. Pervasive, however, was a feeling of skepticism that the election would fundamentally reshape the country's political landscape.

“Every four years we can vote for the person who drives the train, but we can't change the direction of the train,” said Hubert Lützelberger, 67, a former accountant who cast one of his votes for Die Linke, the far-left party.

In the northeast Berlin district of Weissensee, many said Sunday that they had cast ballots on the fragmented left of the political spectrum.

Although they chose different parties, they all agreed on their opposition to the AfD — and their concern that the far right could be back in Germany’s Parliament.

“They should never gain access to the Bundestag. The Holocaust happened, and Germans were guilty of that,” Gerhard Weisseberg said.