Germany: Merkel's Bavarian Allies Lose Majority In Crushing Vote But, Vows To Restore Trust

Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Monday to restore trust in her government after her conservative allies suffered heavy losses in a regional election, which their far-right foes hailed as “an earthquake” that would rock the ruling coalition.

The Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Merkel’s own Christian Democrats (CDU), slumped to its worst result in almost 70 years in Sunday’s election in Bavaria. The chancellor’s other coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), saw its support halved.

“My lesson from this is that I, as chancellor, must make sure that trust is won back. I will work on that with as much vigour as I can,” she said at an event of the BGA trade body.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer, who is also interior minister in Merkel’s loveless coalition, had hoped his anti-immigration rhetoric and criticism of Merkel’s liberal asylum policies would help his party fend off a threat from the far-right in Bavaria.

His strategy backfired as the CSU, which has ruled Bavaria for almost six decades, bled votes to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the ecologist Greens in equal measure. On Monday, he appeared to extend an olive branch.

“We are very pleased because the goal for the Bavaria state election was to send an earthquake towards Berlin,” Martin Sichert, AfD leader in Bavaria, told a news conference. “This earthquake happened .... We are now excited to see what the consequences will be here in Berlin.”

The CSU also lost support to the Free Voters, a protest party of mainly conservative independents.

In Bavaria, the CSU will now try to form a coalition either with the Free Voters - its preferred option - or with the Greens who are ideologically distant.

Polls suggest the ruling parties will again be punished in two weeks’ time in an election in the western state of Hesse, where they are expected to lose voters to the AfD and the Greens.

The state is ruled by Merkel’s CDU in a coalition with the Greens and a slump in support for the conservatives there would almost certainly further weaken the chancellor’s authority.

Merkel, who has been in power since 2005 and is Europe’s most powerful leader, then faces further potential pitfalls in the form of a CDU conclave and the party’s annual congress in early December.

The 64-year-old Merkel has won support from key conservatives in her bid for re-election as CDU chairwoman at the congress. But this could change if the CDU loses Hesse to an SPD-Greens coalition.

“If the CDU loses the government in Hesse, this will probably start a discussion within the CDU about Merkel’s position,” wrote mass-selling newspaper Bild.


(Reuters)



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