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HESSE ELECTIONS 2018

Merkel suffers heavy losses in Hesse elections: exit poll

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party suffered heavy losses in Sunday's regional election in Hesse state, according to an exit poll.

Published: 28 October 2018 18:10 CET
Updated: 28 October 2018 19:17 CET
Merkel suffers heavy losses in Hesse elections: exit poll
CDU ministers in Hesse after the results are announced. Photo: DPA

The CDU remained the largest party, but lost around 10 percentage points to score 28 percent of the vote, public broadcaster ZDF reported, while junior federal government partners the Social Democrats (SPD) shed almost 11 points to land on just 20 percent.

Green party members at an election party following the announcement of the results.

As in Bavaria, the CDU/CSU and SPD suffered massive losses in the Hesse state elections.
 
Prime Minister Volker Bouffier's CDU remained the strongest party on Sunday, but according to forecasts by ARD and ZDF, the party achieved its worst result in the state in more than 50 years. The SPD also received its worst result ever in Hesse.
 
The big election winners are the Greens, who scored their best results so far in a Hesse election, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
 
 
The right-wing populists moved into the state parliament for the first time and are now represented in all 16 state parliaments.
 
The Free Democrats (FDP) and Die Linke (Left Party) also remain in the federal state parliament in Hesse's capital of Wiesbaden. That means that Hessen has a six-party parliament for the first time.
 
Building pressure 
 
The downswing of the CDU and SPD in Hesse could also put further pressure on the CDU and SPD leaders, Angela Merkel and Andrea Nahles, as well as the Grand Coalition (GroKo) in Berlin. The election campaign in Hesse was burdened by GroKo disputes about migration policy and the diesel crisis. 
 

Bouffier is regarded as a confidant of Merkel. In light of his losses in Hesse, it is possible that the calls for Merkel to be replaced as the CDU leader will become louder yet again.

Only two weeks ago, the CDU sister party CSU and the Social Democrats suffered heavy losses in the Bavarian elections. 

SEE ALSO: The winners and losers: 7 Things you need to know about the Bavaria election

Nevertheless, for a long time it looked as if an alliance between these two parties would be a realistic option in Hesse, DPA reported. But in the final tail of the election campaign, the Greens, who have becoming stronger nationwide, made considerable progress.

In addition to the 66-year-old Bouffier and Hesse’s top SPD candidate Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, who had already competed in Hesse for the third time, the focus was once again on the Green top candidate and the Minister of Economics Tarek Al-Wazir.

SEE ALSO: Hesse's Green Party candidate Tarek Al-Wazir could become minister president 

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ANGELA MERKEL

Merkel will step down as chancellor in 2021

Angela Merkel will step down as German chancellor when her mandate ends in 2021, a party source told AFP Monday, following a series of political crises and regional vote debacles rocking her fragile coalition.

Published: 29 October 2018 11:57 CET
Merkel will step down as chancellor in 2021
Merkel at a CDU meeting on October 29th. Photo: DPA

She told party top brass her mandate running to 2021 will be “her last term”, a party source said, adding that she has no plans to seek a post in the European Commission following that despite speculation to that effect in Brussels.

Merkel had been widely expected to be reelected as CDU chief at a party congress in December.

She is due to give a press conference at 1pm.

The surprise news comes a day after the CDU and its junior federal coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD) suffered heavy losses in an election in the state of Hesse, just two weeks after a similar drubbing in Bavaria.

Both polls have been seen as damning verdicts on the right-left “grand coalition” in Berlin which has lurched from crisis to crisis, often over the hot-button issue of migration.

'Mistake' to cling to power

With her authority badly weakened by last September's inconclusive general election and ongoing squabbles in her unhappy coalition, the chancellor has faced mounting calls to prepare Germany for the post-Merkel era.

Die Welt reporter Robin Alexander said the path could now be clear for Merkel's chosen heir, CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, to take the reins if no other credible candidate emerges by December.

“The two women have taken back the momentum, because none of their opponents were ready for this,” he tweeted.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said on Sunday it would be “a mistake” for Merkel to cling to power.

“By passing the baton of her own free will she would show that she knows  the same thing everyone knows: the end of her chancellorship is approaching.”

Merkel's 13 years as chancellor have piled up baggage from repeated compromise-laden “grand coalitions” with the SPD, as well as a fateful 2015 decision to keep Germany's borders open, ultimately allowing in more than one million migrants.

The mass arrivals are credited with fuelling the rise of the far-right, but Merkel has resisted calls to steer the CDU further rightward in response.

Railing against the newcomers, the right wing to far-right anti-immigrant AfD is now the biggest opposition party in the Bundestag, and has seats in all of Germany's state parliaments.

AfD leader Jörg Meuthen hailed news of Merkel's eventual exit as “good news” and said he expected her to also “give up her chancellorship soon”. 

Coalition hammered

No party has haemorrhaged more support in recent years than the SPD, which has wilted as the junior partner governing in Merkel's shadow.

Preliminary final results showed both of the formerly dominant parties being hit with losses of around 11 percentage points in Hesse, western Germany, compared with the last election in 2013, although the CDU still claimed first place with 27 percent of the vote.

The SPD plunged to its worst result in decades to tie for second place with the up-and-coming ecologist Greens, each at 19.8 percent.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) meanwhile took 13.1 percent to enter the Hesse state legislature for the first time.

That result would allow the current state government of the CDU and Greens to continue, albeit with a thinner majority.

SPD ultimatum

SPD chief Andrea Nahles said on Monday her centre-left party, Germany's oldest, had failed “to break free from the government” and stand out in its right.

She said the SPD would now propose a “discussion paper” in Berlin demanding concrete progress on key issues over the next year, including pension rights and better childcare, before deciding whether to remain in the coalition.

The unstable government almost collapsed twice over the summer, notably when Merkel restrained hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer's attempts to toughen up migrant policy.

Increasing numbers of SPD members have been calling for the party to quit government and lick its wounds in opposition, as it is presently polling below AfD nationwide, at 15 percent to the far-right's 16 percent.

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