Angela Merkel Gets New Election Setback in Germany

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A Green party candidate, Tarek Al-Wazir, Green Party leading candidate, voting in Hesse state elections on Sunday.CreditCreditThomas Lohnes/Getty Images

By Melissa Eddy

Oct. 28, 2018

BERLIN — Voters in one of Germany’s most prosperous states punished Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives again on Sunday in an election that was seen as yet another barometer of her and her party’s standing with the German public.

The verdict in Hesse state, an apparently tepid, and certainly shrinking, well of support for the chancellor’s party, was in keeping with the trend throughout Germany in recent years.

While Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats emerged as the leading vote getters and were expected to be chosen to form a new government there, that was hardly surprising. They have dominated politics in Hesse state for nearly two decades, sometimes by wide margins.

But the voting Sunday, the conservatives were expected to earn the backing of only about 27 percent of the voters — more than 10 points less than in the previous election in 2013.

Their coalition partner in the national government, the Social Democrats, were also expected to lose about 10 points from their previous total, and garner around 20 percent of the vote.

Repeating a scenario seen two weeks ago in the southern state of Bavaria, where Ms. Merkel’s conservative bloc suffered a similar loss, voters in Hesse shifted from the center to the fringes. On the left, the Greens’ share of the vote rose to around 20 percent, from 8 percent previously. The right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, had a 12 percent share, a little below the 15 percent it has nationally.

With Sunday’s results, the anti-immigrant AfD easily passed the threshold for entering the regional legislature for the first time, giving it representation now in all 16 of Germany’s state parliaments.

If the projections for Hesse remain constant, the coalition of Christian Democrats and Greens that has governed for the part five years would continue in power. But given the extremely tight race, it was not clear if they would have enough seats to continue their government of the past five years.

With the entrance of the AfD and the far-left Left, six parties earned representation in the legislature, meaning the shape of the next government could depend on majorities of one or two seats.

Candidates in Hesse had tried to focus on local issues like education, transportation and infrastructure. But voters appeared focused from the outset on the larger picture, seeking to punish the chancellor’s center-right Christian Democrats and their governing partners, the center-left Social Democrats, for the infighting that has plagued them since they took power in March.

While Ms. Merkel’s party managed to squeak through, the outcome of Sunday’s vote will heighten pressure on her, six weeks before a party congress at which, she has said, she will run for leader, a position she has held since April 2000.

So far, no serious candidates have emerged to challenge her. But last month, one of her closest allies was defeated as leader of the conservative bloc’s parliamentary group by a little-known challenger — further indication that Ms. Merkel’s support is weakening within her own party.

The chancellor’s conservatives expressed dismay at the outcome in Hesse, but vowed to redouble their focus on governing, hoping to win back trust and restructure the party. The conservatives have watched as their support at the national level has eroded to around 27 percent, from the more than 35 percent they enjoyed when Ms. Merkel was elected to her first term in 2005.

“Where there are losses, there have to be consequences,” said Helge Braun, Ms. Merkel’s chief of staff told public broadcaster ARD, but did not elaborate further.

Annegret Kamp-Karrenbauer, secretary-general of the conservative party, said: “Of course, we in the Christian Democrats are not happy. We need a new work culture in the governing coalition and a regeneration of the Christian Democrats.”

Her coalition partners at the national level, the Social Democrats, have never felt comfortable in the government. They believe they have suffered for joining with the conservatives, and did so only after much agonizing. On Sunday, their leader, Andrea Nahles, placed the blame for her party’s losses squarely on the coalition in Berlin.

“The state of the governing coalition is not acceptable,” Ms. Nahles told her party after the results were announced. She said that the Social Democrats would be drawing up a “road map” for the year ahead, until the midterm review her party insisted on as part of the deal for joining Ms. Merkel’s government.