Sean Gallup/Getty Images(BERLIN) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s position on refugees and migrants could cost her ruling party the parliamentary elections next year, new poll results show.
In Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, formerly East Germany and home to Merkel, exit polling and initial results Sunday pushed the chancellor’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party in third behind the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD), according to BBC.
The center-left Social Democrats (SDP) earned most of the vote at 30 percent, Afd had 21 percent of the vote, and Merkel’s CDU took 19 percent, according to BBC.
Merkel’s refugee policy and willingness to take in large numbers of refugees, including 1.1 million in 2015, dismayed voters as Europe saw multiple terror attacks in the past year. The AfD party, founded in 2013, is seen to be drawing voters with its anti-Islam policy.
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