Merkel braces for populist gains in Berlin elections

BERLIN: Berlin residents voted in state elections today in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces new gains by the anti-migrant AfD party as a wave of protest voting against her welcome to refugees was expected to hit the hip, multicultural capital.
The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has mobilised xenophobic and anti-Islam sentiment to win opposition seats in nine out of 16 states in Germany and is especially strong in the ex-communist east.
Fresh gains in long-divided Berlin – where the AfD has polled 14%, a year ahead of national elections – would spell another setback for Merkel, whose open-door policy brought one million asylum-seekers to Germany last year.
More than 70,000 of them came to Berlin, most still housed in refuge shelters including the cavernous hangars of the Nazi-built former Tempelhof airport, once the hub for the Cold War-era Berlin airlift.
Merkel – who was booed with "get lost" cries by right-wing activists at a campaign event with her party's candidate Frank Henkel this week – conceded that it was hard to reach the "protest voters" who have turned their backs on mainstream parties.
"And still we have to try, again and again, because I think we must not give up on people who are casting protest votes," she said on RBB Berlin public radio.
On Saturday, in another tacit acknowledgement of the negative reaction to her migrant policy among some voters, she said she wanted to drop her "we can do it" rallying cry, much used last year to illustrate her welcoming stance on migrants.
"It's become a simple slogan, an almost meaningless formula," she told the Wirtschaftswoche financial weekly in an interview, adding: "Some feel provoked (by the expression) which of course was not the idea."
Polls opened in Berlin at 0600 GMT (2pm Malaysia) and are due to close 10 hours later. – AFP