Angela Merckel’s CDU party just finished third in a CDU stronghold and her home state, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It finished behind the Alternative fuer Deutschland party, which takes a strong anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic stance. The party was founded in 2013. From CDU secretary general Peter Tauber:
The strong performance of AfD is bitter for many, for everyone in our party. A sizeable number of people wanted to voice their displeasure and to protest. And we saw that particularly in discussions about refugees.
Anti-establishment, anti-immigration parties are on a roll in Europe. Don’t expect Merckel to change her tune, but it’s not hard to imagine those sentiments jumping the Atlantic to the US this November.
