Oct. 15 (UPI) — The sister party to German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s ruling Christian Democrats lost its majority in Bavaria for the first time since 1950 on Sunday, while the Greens and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) won major gains.
The Christian Social Union scored 37.4 percent of the vote, while the left-leaning Greens won their best result with 17.9 percent and the right-leaning AfD scored 10.6 percent. The AfD’s showing marked the first time the anti-immigration party won Parliamentary seats.
Although the CSU still won the most votes in Sunday’s election, the party’s failure to maintain the majority in Bavaria for the first time in nearly 70 years denoted a major decline of support for the party in favor of the Greens and AfD.
And that shift means Merkel’s ability to maintain a ruling coalition for long is in doubt.
“Voters are abandoning us chiefly because of Merkel. I hope she will step down — she is a woman of the past, not a woman of the future,” said Armin Gastl, CSU leader in central Munich, according to the Wall Street Journal. “This is the twilight of the chancellor.”
Alice Weidel, a leader in the AfD party, said the results showed there was “no longer a grand coalition in Berlin,” CNN reported.
“Those who have voted for AfD in Bavaria today also say Merkel must go, dear ladies and gentlemen,” Weidel said. “Clear the path for new elections, clear the path for policy in our country.”
Although migration has been a major focal point of criticism against Merkel and her ruling coalition and the anti-immigration AfD won major gains, the pro-immigrant Greens came in second and nearly doubled their voting numbers from 2013, in what is considered one of the most conservative regions of Germany.
“We will change the whole federal republic,” said Anton Hofreiter, a lawmaker for the Greens in Berlin, according to The New York Times.
