Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 05 September 2016: The official results of the state election in Germany released

On the 4th of September, a regional election took place in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany which is Angela Merkel's home state. The center-left Social Democrats came first with 31% of the votes, the far-right Alternative for Germany came the second with 21% of votes and, thus, for the first time in modern Germany, a far-right party overtook Merkel's Christian Democrat bloc who received 19% of votes at this election. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already claimed to be unhappy about the outcomes of the election, and linked the results with the immigration policy.

According to the preliminary analysis conducted by the German public service broadcaster ARD, the Alternative for Germany mainly gained the votes from conservative supporters of Merkel's bloc and from people who did not vote in previous elections (this election saw a 10 percent higher turnout than the previous one). The election polls state that for 75% of the far-right party supporters it was a protest vote in order to demonstrate dissatisfaction with mainstream parties' policies. That is why, not only the Christian Democrats, but also leftwing parties and the far-right National Democratic party lost votes comparing to the previous elections.

Experts regard the outcomes of this election as a serious challenge to Christian Democrats at the upcoming German federal election which will take place next autumn.

The Alternative for Germany was founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party . Currently, the party has representatives at 9 state legislatures, as well as in the European Parliament.