Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won Germany's European elections yesterday but was on course to lose seven of the country's 96 seats in the next EU parliament to a new eurosceptic party.
Exit polls gave the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) around seven per cent of the vote and seven seats in the new parliament, where it has vowed to work with Britain’s Conservative Party and shun Ukip and France’s National Front. But poll analysis gave no sign of a German eurosceptic surge yesterday: though up two percentage points on its first election outing last September, the euro critical AfD’s result showed no significant gain in absolute support.
Dr Merkel’s CDU remained steady while its worst-ever euro showing – down almost 2 per cent in exit polls to about 36 per cent – fell to a weak showing by its Bavarian CSU ally. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) rebounded to almost 28 per cent and a forecast 28 seats.
SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel attributed his party's strong result — up almost seven per cent — to the Socialist camp's Spitzenkandidat or lead candidate for the post of European Commission president, Martin Schulz. In a clear warning to Dr Merkel, Mr Gabriel said: "In our view, no one else but a lead candidate can be proposed in parliament, that is a question of political credibility."
A beaming Mr Schulz, who got a thunderous welcome at SPD headquarters yesterday evening in Berlin, "ruled out completely" that MEPs would back a compromise candidate for the presidency, rather than him or Mr Juncker.
The CDU insisted that ex-Luxembourg prime minister Juncker was still their man, amid speculation that Dr Merkel may dump him this week in Brussels. Mr Juncker told German television he had a “good feeling” that he would be the next European Commission president.
This morning CDU leader Angela Merkel will face questions from senior party figures her strategy to simply ignore the AfD in the euro campaign. Initial analysis suggest the CDU lost the most votes of all parties, almost half a million, to the new eurosceptic party. "It's springtime in Germany, " said Prof Bernd Lucke, the AfD leader and likely new MEP. "The AfD blossomed at this election while others are on their knees."
The liberal Free Democratic Party lost nine seats to poll just three per cent; the Green and Left Parties were relatively steady at 11 and 8 per cent respectively. The end of Germany’s three per cent EU election hurdle, ruled illegal by its highest court, fragmented the result with new German MEPs likely from ecological, animal rights and even the neo-Nazi NPD party. “The rise of smaller parties means that Germany’s collective clout in the parliament will abate,” said political scientist Prof Dr Karl-Rudolf Korte.
