Angela Merkel is sticking to her policy on refugees despite disaster results in Germany’s regional elections in which the country’s nationalist party saw a significant rise in support.
Ms Merkel’s ruling conservatives suffered embarrassing losses to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, AfD, which powered into three state legislatures on Sunday.
The party has campaigned against Ms Merkel’s open-borders approach and managed to both steal votes from established parties and attract people who had previously not voted, indicating the German electorate is uneasy about the Chancellor’s policies.
But on Monday Ms Merkel insisted a European solution needed to be found to the crisis.
"I am firmly convinced, and that wasn't questioned today, that we need a European solution and that this solution needs time," she said.
The AfD now has seats in half of Germany's 16 state legislatures and the European Parliament.
Despite this and the failure of Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party to win back two states lost to centre-left incumbents, many have called the Chancellor’s overall performance in the elections a sign of support for her policies.
Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University said the CDU’s refugee policy was “supported by the majority of voters,” even if they voted for other parties, and that Ms Merkel will not back down from her plan to find a solution to Europe’s refugee crisis.
While Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer continued to criticise Ms Merkel’s refugee policy following her election results, the CDU’s general secretary said the polls instead showed the Chancellor’s popularity is rebounding.
Peter Tauber told ZDF Television “it is good the CDU sticks to this course, saying that we need time to master this big challenge.
“One thing is very clear: our supporters want to know where they are,” he said, “and if the impression arises that the CDU is not united, that the [conservative bloc] is not united, then it is difficult or more difficult to convince people.”
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Germany will continue to “pursue its refugee policy at home and abroad.”
More than 1.1 million refugees entered Germany last year. In February the German cabinet approved a package of measures to speed up the process of those entering the country and seeking asylum.
Additional reporting by AP
