German election results

http://news.sky.com/story/merkels-party-wins-biggest-share-in-german-election-11051878

Angela Merkel is set for a fourth term as Germany's chancellor, according to exit polls.

However, the poll suggests the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party will enter the national parliament for the first time.

Mrs Merkel party took between 32.5 and 33.5%, well ahead of the second placed Social Democratic Party with 20-21%.

But in a major shock, the AfD took 13 to 13.5% support in Sunday's vote making it the country's third biggest political force.

It is now heading for the opposition benches of the Bundestag lower house which will dramatically boost its visibility and state financing.

The four-year-old party has links to the far-right French National Front and Britain's UKIP.

Mrs Merkel failed to secure a ruling majority and now the process of coalition building will begin and could take several months.

More follows...

We live in interesting times.....

Jewish groups alarmed about German nationalists.

Major Jewish groups are expressing alarm and dismay that the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany has won seats in Germany's parliament.

German Central Council of Jews President Josef Schuster says the party, known by its German initials AfD, "tolerates far-right thoughts and agitates against minorities." He said he expects Germany's other parties will "reveal the true face of the AfD and unmask their empty, populist promises."

The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, congratulated Chancellor Angela Merkel on securing a fourth term, calling her a "true friend of Israel and the Jewish people." He denounced the AfD as "a disgraceful reactionary movement which recalls the worst of Germany's past."

Among the AfD remarks condemned by Jewish groups, co-leader Alexander Gauland recently said no other country has faced up to past crimes the way Germany has and the Nazi years "today don't affect our identity anymore."

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has congratulated the nationalist Alternative for Germany party on entering the German parliament.

Le Pen, who lost France's presidential election to Emmanuel Macron earlier this year, wrote on Twitter: "Bravo to our allies from AfD for this historic score! It's a new symbol of the awakening of the peoples of Europe."

Projections showed Alternative for Germany, or AfD, finishing third in Sunday's election with about 13 percent of the vote — enough for the party to enter parliament for the first time.

It doesn't make comforting reading.

German nationalists seek to allay fears; show cracks at top.

BAUTZEN, Germany (AP) — Leaders of the nationalist, anti-migrant Alternative for Germany pledged Monday to use their third-place election finish to conduct robust but "constructive" opposition, and sought to allay fears raised by Jewish groups and others about their entry into parliament.

However, long-running cracks at the top of the party, known by its German acronym AfD, erupted in public when co-chairwoman Frauke Petry — one of AfD's best-known faces but sidelined over recent months — stormed out of a press conference. That left three other top party leaders chuckling and smirking, but briefly speechless.

"An anarchic party ... can be successful in opposition, but it cannot make voters a credible offer for government." Petry said, adding she wouldn't join AfD's parliamentary caucus. She walked out of the room without taking questions.

Co-chairman Joerg Meuthen apologized "on behalf of the party" for the episode, saying it was "not discussed with us," before moving on. Persistent leadership infighting so far has failed to do the party significant harm.

Germany's mainstream parties have all ruled out teaming up with AfD, which is one of six caucuses in the new parliament after winning 12.6 percent of the vote. Including the seat Petry won, it has 94 of the 709 seats.

Co-leader Alice Weidel told reporters their plan was to provide "constructive opposition." "We have a very clear mandate from the voters, and there is no time to waste," she said. AfD drew support from people who previously voted for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and from many who didn't previously vote at all. To a lesser extent, it also drained support from the center-left Social Democrats and others.

Its success followed a campaign focused on criticism of the chancellor's decision to open the country's doors to more than 1 million asylum-seekers over the past two years. It performed most strongly in Germany's formerly communist and less prosperous east, capturing 22.5 percent of the vote there — 27 percent among male voters.

In the eastern town of Bautzen, which saw clashes last year between residents and migrants, Merkel's Christian Democratic Union lost a seat it had held for more than 25 years to AfD, whose candidate received 32.8 percent of the vote.

Merkel told reporters Monday that the AfD's support in the east was mirrored in some economically depressed areas of the west by voters with similar worries. "It's simply fear of losing out, and concern that what they have today could be lost, be it through globalization, be it through sharing with refugees," she said.

Bautzen is located in Saxony, Petry's home state and long an AfD stronghold. Across the state, AfD narrowly topped Merkel's CDU to become the strongest party, winning 27 percent of the vote. Petry turned AfD from opposing eurozone bailouts to a focus on migration after she ousted the party's founding leader in 2015, but recently had been sidelined after urging AfD to exclude members who express extremist views, with the aim of attracting moderate voters. While she said she wouldn't join the parliamentary group, she didn't say she was leaving the party.

Later in the day, Weidel urged Petry to leave the party to "prevent further harm," saying her walking out was "hard to beat in terms of irresponsibility." Co-leader Alexander Gauland sought Monday to allay fears expressed by Jewish groups about his party's success. The Anti-Defamation League also called the AfD result a "disturbing milestone," saying "its leaders have made anti-Semitic statements and played down the evil of the Nazi regime."

Among other statements that have caused concern, AfD's leader in Thuringia state, Bjoern Hoecke, called for a "U-turn" in the way Germany remembers its Nazi past, while Gauland himself has repeatedly insisted "we have the right to be proud of the achievements of Germans soldiers in two world wars."

Still, Gauland insisted that "there is nothing in our party, in our program, that could disturb the Jewish people who live here in Germany." He added that he hadn't met with Jewish leaders, but was "ready at any time" to do so.

He also dismissed concerns that AfD's rise was somehow linked to a wider swing to the right in Europe and the U.S. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and the Netherlands' Geert Wilders both were quick to congratulate AfD on entering parliament.

"I don't think that these parties are at all comparable, and that there is some kind of a mobilization of nationalist parties across Europe," Gauland said. "Mr. Trump has neither helped us nor hindered us, because we have different problems than the Americans, and Ms. Le Pen's defeat in the end didn't hurt us because France has different problems."

He added that Austria's right-wing Freedom Party is "the only party where there is a closer relationship."

Among other statements that have caused concern, AfD's leader in Thuringia state, Bjoern Hoecke, called for a "U-turn" in the way Germany remembers its Nazi past, while Gauland himself has repeatedly insisted "we have the right to be proud of the achievements of Germans soldiers in two world wars."

Good God! Does he mean the way they slaughtered a path across the continent? The atrocities, the pogroms? Burning villages to the ground?

A good few men in the Luftwaffe and Kreigsmarine were patriotic Germans rather than fanatical nazis, but the soldiers were a very different matter. And they did commit atrocities against civilians in WW1, too.

Proud of their achievements? Words fail me.

UKIP's leader just congratulated the far-right AfD party after it surged in the German election.

UKIP's interim leader has congratulated the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party for winning seats in Germany's parliament on Sunday.

In a statement on UKIP's website, Steve Crowther hailed the election result as "a brave move in Germany, whose politics has been overshadowed by the Nazi era." He also said it "shows that the people are no longer prepared to be ignored and coerced by the liberal left."

He also said it "shows that the people are no longer prepared to be ignored and coerced by the liberal left."

The nationalist, anti-immigrant, anti-same-sex marriage, and anti-euro party won about 13% of the vote, finishing in third place. It marked the first time a far-right party has sat in the Bundestag since the collapse of the Nazi party 72 years ago.

Alexander Gauland, one of AfD's leading candidates, vowed to "hunt Frau Merkel" and "reclaim our country and our people," while celebrating the party's victory with his co-leader Alice Weidel on Sunday night, according to Politico. AfD's victory was also met by massive protests in Berlin.

Here's Crowther's statement in full:

"Like UKIP, the AfD offers a balancing force within its national politics which has been skewed towards the centre-left consensus. This is a brave move in Germany, whose politics has been overshadowed by the Nazi era. It shows that the people are no longer prepared to be ignored and coerced by the liberal left.

"It is telling that the AfD vote comes from all age groups, is driven by former non-voters as well as disillusioned conservative and left voters, and comes largely from the employed and unemployed working class.

"Once again, the elites are learning that democracy actually means listening to the majority, no matter how much they despise their vulgar attitudes."

UKIP has also invited an unnamed senior AfD member to its party conference on Friday and Saturday, according to a press statement sent to Business Insider.

Nigel Farage, UKIP's former leader, also campaigned for AfD earlier this month. He was so impressed with the party that he accepted its invitation to speak at the rally "without hesitation," AfD MEP Beatrix von Storch said.

Leading AfD figure refuses to join German party's parliamentary group.

Frauke Petry stunned reporters by saying there was 'dissent' within the party and announced she would be serving as an independent MP.

The nationalist Alternative of Germany was hit by party infighting on Monday just hours after winning its first seats in parliament, with its co-chief Frauke Petry declaring that she won't join its Bundestag group.

"I decided after careful reflection that I will not sit with the (AfD) parliamentary group" in the Bundestag, Petry told a press conference alongside other key figures in the party before abruptly leaving the room.

Petry, who has long been locked in a dispute with more hardline AfD colleagues, won a seat in Sunday's election and said she would still serve as an MP.

Her decision caught her colleagues by surprise at the press conference, and came a day after the AfD made history by sending dozens of lawmakers to parliament -- a first since World War II for an openly anti-immigration and Islamophobic hard-right party.

Petry pointed to "dissent" within the party, and said there was no point hiding that.

She had openly criticised one of the party's two leading candidates, Alexander Gauland, for saying that the AfD would "go after" Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government.

"That is rhetoric that I think... would not be seen as constructive by voters," she told public broadcaster ZDF.

During the campaign, she also said Gauland's claim that Germany should be proud of its World War I and II soldiers would cause voters to shun the party.

During the campaign, she also said Gauland's claim that Germany should be proud of its World War I and II soldiers would cause voters to shun the party.


And rightly so.