Merkel party sees off key poll challenge

CDU's win over far-right in eastern state boosts confidence for German election

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, party won a major victory on Sunday in a closely watched regional election seen as critical for the party's prospects in a general election in September.

There were widespread concerns before Sunday that the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, might beat the center-right CDU in Saxony-Anhalt, which was the last state to hold regional elections. Many polls before the election showed that the AfD was in a close race with the CDU.

Projected results from the Sunday election showed that the CDU will remain the largest party in the German eastern state's parliament.

These results showed that the CDU won 37 percent of the votes while the AfD received 21 percent. The socialist Left party got 11 percent and the Social Democratic Party, or the SPD, garnered 8.4 percent. Trailing them were the Greens with 5.9 percent and the Free Democratic Party, or FDP, with 6.4 percent.

"I am grateful to all of our citizens that a really substantial majority chose democracy and drew a line between us and the right, preserving our image as democrats," the CDU's Reiner Haseloff, who has been the state's premier since 2011, told German public television in an interview.

The party's secretary-general, Paul Ziemiak, described the outcome as a "sensationally good result".

The CDU now governs the Saxony-Anhalt State, with a population of 2.2 million, in a coalition government with the SPD and the Greens. The leaders of the both the SPD and the Greens have expressed their willingness to continue their coalition.

The election result means that the 67-year-old Haseloff will be able to form a possible coalition government in the state with the SPD and the FDP, the traditional partner of the center right.

German broadcaster DW attributed the Sunday win for the CDU to electorate's fear of an AfD victory, which appears to have driven many voters to turn to the CDU－the only party that could beat the AfD. Haseloff spent days before the election making such an argument that a vote for anyone but him would only strengthen the AfD.

The win has been viewed as an encouraging sign for the CDU and its new leader Armin Laschet, who is expected to succeed Merkel in contesting the national election on September 26. The CDU has suffered a decline in support in recent national polls.

While failing to upset the CDU on Sunday, the AfD's Saxony-Anhalt Chairman Martin Reichardt was still optimistic.

Satisfying result

"I think we can be very satisfied with the election result," he said.

The AfD is popular in some eastern German states where many voters feel they have been forgotten by the federal government. Many in the eastern states are also dissatisfied with the federal government's policy to welcome refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The AfD had campaigned against COVID-19 restrictions and it had also urged voters to show their "resistance" at the ballot booth.

Annalena Baerbock, the 40-year-old Greens candidate for chancellor, expressed her disappointment at the result after the party enjoyed growing popularity in some other German states in recent months.

Lydia Huskens, the lead candidate of the FDP in the state, said she is "very optimistic" that her party could join the state's coalition government.

Ulrike Franke, a senior policy fellow of European Council on Foreign Relations, said in a tweet on Monday: "Saxony-Anhalt is a state with a voting-age population of only 1.8 million. German reunification plunged it into an economic depression …, and the population has shrunk by 24 percent since 1990 as young people drifted westwards in search of better jobs."

Agencies contributed to this story.