Merkel is going through a difficult period: her party, CDU, has had the worst result since 1949. Meanwhile AfD, dubbed by many Germans as “a party of Nazis”, has gained a lot of votes and managed to enter the German Bundestag for the first time since 1945.
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Either due to leading the country for too long (12 years in 3 different elections, 4 more now) or due to too many bad moves, Merkel’s party, CDU, has lost a large amount of voters. It is estimated that, in the elections from the 24th September, close to 2 million past voters of CDU/SDU decided to vote a different party, with around 1.4 million of them going to FPF, the liberal party, and close to a million choosing AfD.
Many Germans actually dislike Merkel, but ended up voting her in past elections as the other candidates were seen as bad. But this year, it seems most voters were unhappy with this year’s elections, and decided to give their vote to different parties, probably due to a series of mistakes made by Merkel over the past few years.
An example of one of these possible mistakes was accepting a million refugees last year, which initially had little resistance, and even gave her some popularity, but is starting to be seen as a bad move by many Germans a year later. The proof, the rise of popularity of AfD (Alternative for Germany).
This party managed to obtain 12.6% of the votes, 7.9% more than in last elections, but still having a bad opinion amongst German people, with most of them, if you ask them, replying that “they are a bunch of Nazis and idiots”.
In any case, Merkel’s next 4 years don’t seem to be very bright. Currently, the chancellor is trying to secure a majority, in order to be able to form a government. This means forming a coalition with at least another party, such as SPD (Social democrats) or Grüne (The Greens).
