JOIN USMerkel suffers fresh poll setback in Berlin
The SPD won 29.5 per cent of the vote in Berlin, down from 30.8 per cent in 2006 in Germany’s largest city with 3.4 million inhabitants, according to an exit poll on ARD television.
SPD Mayor Klaus Wowereit appeared to be headed for a third five-year term, with the Greens as his most likely coalition partner. It was another bitter defeat for Merkel’s CDU ahead of a crucial euro zone rescue vote in parliament in two weeks.
The CDU won 23.5 per cent, up slightly from 21.3 per cent in 2006 but well below the 40 per cent the party used to win in Berlin in the 1980s and 1990s. The Greens won 18 per cent, up from 13.1 per cent in 2006, and the Left party fell to 11.5 per cent from 13.4 per cent.
The Pirate Party, running on a campaign for reform of copyright and better privacy in the Internet age, came out of nowhere to win a stunning 8.5 per cent.
Merkel’s centre-right coalition suffered more bad news in the Berlin election when their junior coalition partners at the national level, the Free Democrats (FDP), failed to clear the five percent threshold for getting a seat. The FDP plunged to 2 per cent, down from 7.6 per cent in 2006.
Merkel, under fire for her hesitant leadership in the euro zone crisis, is halfway through a four-year term. But election setbacks for her CDU have hurt her standing before the vote on euro zone measures in parliament at the end of September.
“I never really liked Merkel anyway, and she doesn’t seem to be doing a good job leading at all,” said Claudia Barre, 31, an insurance saleswoman.