Was it a pyrrhic victory for Angel Merkel in Germany? The euphoria over Merkel winning a fourth term in office has been tempered or to some extent nullified by the remarkable performance of the racist, anti-Islamic and far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Sunday’s election. In a sense, the election showed a collective weakening of the secular, liberal parties and the stunning march of the far-right. The German chancellor’s centre-right Christian Democrat-led alliance took 33 percent of the vote, which was its worst performance since 1949 though enough to remain the largest party in parliament; the centre-left Social Democrats – Merkel’s partners since 2013 – also suffered a huge setback, taking just 21 percent, while the AfD walked away with 13 percent, making a grand entry into the Bundestag for the first time in almost six decades. Merkel now faces the tough task of finding one or more coalition partners to form a governing majority, or pursue a minority government. Social Democrats have ruled out another “grand coalition” with the CDU within hours of the first exit polls.
However, it will be premature to read too much into the performance of the far-right in the current election. AfD’s rise is more of a protest of Germans against Merkel’s liberal immigration policies rather than a permanent shift towards the right. Merkel had taken the revolutionary step of opening her country’s borders to welcome more than a million migrants, mainly from Syria, while other European countries baulked and looked at her magnanimity with awe. Her decision created a backlash at home, with AfD using it to whip up anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic sentiments, which resulted in the election gains.
In several European countries, the racist, anti-immigrant parties have staged spectacular performances during the campaign but later lost their momentum. The heavy defeats of Wilders’ Freedom party and Le Pen’s Front National conclusively proved that Europeans were not keen on pursuing populist and racist parties which talked hate rather than development. At the same time, there is no reason to think that they will go away and will continue to exploit the broader fears and disappointment of discontented voters across the EU.
The election is a message for Merkel to tread cautiously. She will be forced to forego some of her pro-immigrant policies, and even satisfy the far-right by veering a little to the right, which she has done during the campaign. A further tilt to the right will damage the values which Germany is known for. It’s one thing to garner 13 percent of the vote, but another to upend the policies of the state which it has followed for decades.
