As Germany continues to struggle with the consequences of allowing in massive numbers of migrants, it’s political leaders, specifically Prime Minister Angela Merkel, is bearing the brunt of the terrorist attacks that have risen throughout the summer following the release of recent polling.

With the release of this recent poll, 47% of German citizens said that they have been satisfied with the way Ms. Merkel has handled the string of crises that have affected Germany. 65% said that they were dissatisfied with the way Ms. Merkel has been handling the migrant crisis.

“We are seeing the above all in these elections that voters are turning away in large numbers from big established parties and voting for our party” Frauke Petry who is the head of the AFD said following the success of the party in the state elections of 2016.

Following the success of the party in the 2014 mid-term elections, the Anti- Migrant AFD party has continued its success amid the struggles of Angela Merkel’s dealing with the current migrant crisis. Coming off the success of the mid-term elections, the AFD was able to transfer its message into the state elections and achieve tremendous success for a party that was not in existence before the 2014 midterm elections.

In the three regional state elections AFD was able to win seats in parliament in all three states and come in the top three of most votes received. In Baden- Württemberg elections the AFD gained 23 seats coming in third place, while in the Rhineland-Palatinate elections the party got 14 seats coming in 3^rd place and in the Saxony- Anhalt region the party had its best showing with 25 seats coming in 2^nd place.

“We have achieved something very important, we have mobilized many non- voters to take part in the elections, something the established parties failed to do” Andre Poggenberg said.   Mr. Poggenberg is the lead candidate for the party in the Saxony- Anhalt region.

The country has seen an escalation in attacks over the last two years as it has been accepting in migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, with attacks occurring on New Year’s Eve 2015 when thousands of women were attacked throughout Germany by drunken and rowdy migrants the most infamous occurring in the city of Cologne.

Violence in Germany has continued into 2016 as Germany has seen numerous attacks starting with an axe attack in July by an Afghan refugee which police later found an ISIS flag in his room, then continuing four days later on July 22^nd with a shooting in Munich which killed 9 people, although no link to Islamic terrorism was found 

All of these incidents play into the strengths of the party platform of the AFD as their main issue is being anti-migrant and also anti- Euro and trying to continue the success of the anti- EU parties on the heal of the Brexit vote.

Other “main stream” or already established parties did poorly with many, including Angela Merkel’s CDU party losing seats.

In other bad polling news for Ms. Merkel, the AFD gained 15% support, while 64% said that Ms. Merkel should no run for re-election in 2017.

“ It’s part of a European trend” Professor Julius Schoeps, head of the Moses Mendelsohn said regarding Euro-skeptic parties gaining success in European elections. “France, the Netherlands and now Germany are experiencing this phenomenon” (also included in that list is now Great Britain.).  

In the end, if the West wants to solve this problem of out of control migration to their countries, they should come up with a plan that will allow the Syrian President to be removed from office and allow for a democratically elected President to be installed into office and to allow peace to return to a tremendously troubled country.

Links to sources:

1. Yahoo Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/merkels-popularity-plunges-wake-attacks-195913044.html?nhp=1
2. The Local.de Link: https://www.thelocal.de/20160510/major-political-parties-have-never-been-so-unpopular-poll
3. Fox News Link: https://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/14/german-anti-immigration-party-makes-gains-in-local-elections-amid-refugee-crisis.html
4. The Economist Link: https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/03/daily-chart-8
5. The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/13/anti-refugee-party-makes-big-gains-in-german-state-elections