Weakened Merkel takes on populist upheaval as election campaign starts
by Compiled from Wire Services
ISTANBULDec 08, 2016 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Compiled from Wire Services
Dec 08, 2016 12:00 am
Angela Merkel's conservatives gave her an over 11-minute standing ovation after handing her another term as party chief, but also issued a warning in re-electing her with the worst score since she became German chancellor.
With the mixed verdict Tuesday from her party rank and file on her bid for a fourth term, Merkel embarks on her toughest election campaign as she has been weakened by her liberal refugee policy that has polarized Europe's biggest economy.
While 89.5 percent is hardly a score to be scoffed at, it fell just short of the 90 percent of Christian Democratic Union delegates, which is seen as a crucial threshold.
Recognizing the public resentment over her refugee policy, Merkel has ditched last year's mantra of "we can do this." Rather, she laid out a tough stance on immigration and even called for a partial ban on the Muslim full-face veil, as she pleaded with her delegates for help in her fight for a fourth term.
Delegates from German Chancellor Merkel's party at a convention held yesterday in Essen narrowly backed a motion from the party's youth wing that advocated returning to the old system.
Merkel's decision last September to let in people fleeing war has become her Achilles' heel, as public resentment mounted after more than a million asylum seekers arrived in Europe's biggest economy since the start of 2015.
Delegates at the CDU's annual congress are particularly anxious to halt a further hemorrhage of supporters to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), as three more state elections loom next year in the run-up to the nationwide polls.
Merkel has suffered from low popularity, cutting a lonely figure in her struggle for resisting pressure to change her open-door refugee policy after being relegated to third place behind an anti-immigration AfD party in the regional election in her constituency in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and then in Berlin.
In September 2016, Merkel's popularity reached a five-year low. Less than 45 percent of German people were satisfied with her performance, according to the "Germany trend" survey conducted by pollsters Infratest dimap. It was the lowest number recorded since 2011.
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