Elections in two east German states on Sunday are set to yield a surge in suppor...
BERLIN - Elections in two east German states on Sunday are set to yield a surge in support for the far right and raise the pressure on conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Social Democrat coalition partners to quit her government.
But polls show that the SPD will be the bigger losers when the voting ends at 1600 GMT. Exit polls are due then. The latest poll put the Social Democrats on 22%, just 1 point ahead of the AfD in Brandenburg, the state neighboring Poland that has been governed by the SPD since German reunification three decades ago.
SPD delegates are expected to elect a new leader in December and the party has promised members to assess the partnership with Merkel’s conservatives at the end of this year.A coalition breakdown could trigger a snap federal election before 2021, an unappealing option for the SPD given that national polls have put Merkel’s conservatives first, with the Greens close behind and the SPD trailing on a par with the AfD.
A humiliating outcome in Saxony is likely to renew debate among conservatives about whether CDU leader and Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, aka AKK, is the right person to lead them into the next national election.
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