BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party suffered its second electoral blow in two weeks on Sunday, slumping to its lowest level since 1990 in a Berlin state vote that rejected her open-door refugee policy.

Voters turned to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which with 12.9 percent of the vote will enter its 10th regional assembly among the country’s 16 states.

A year before a national election, the result is set to raise pressure on Merkel and deepen rifts in her conservative camp, with more sniping expected from her CSU allies in Bavaria.

The CSU’s Bavarian finance minister Markus Soeder was quick to call it the “second massive wake-up call” in two weeks.

“A long-term and massive loss in trust among traditional voters threatens the conservative bloc,” he told the Bild daily, adding Merkel’s right-left national coalition had to win back support by changing course on its immigration policy.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats were routed in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two weeks ago, triggering calls from the CSU for her to toughen up her migrant policy.

In particular, they want a cap of 200,000 refugees per year, which Merkel rejects.

The secretary general of Merkel’s CDU, Peter Tauber, partly blamed the CSU for the losses in Berlin, which only 27 years ago was the front line of the Cold War.

“If there is a dispute within the conservative bloc, it doesn’t help us on the ground - especially if this dispute is carried out in the way it is being done from Munich,” he said.

A backlash against her migrant policy has raised questions about whether Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, will stand for a fourth term next year. Given a dearth of options in her party, however, she is still the most likely candidate.

SPD KEEP CONTROL BUT SUPPORT DOWN

Projections from broadcaster ZDF put Merkel’s Christian Democrats on 18 percent, down from 23.3 percent in the last election in Berlin in 2011.

The Social Democrats (SPD) also lost support, falling to 22.4 percent from 28.3 percent, but remained the biggest party and are likely to ditch the CDU from their current coalition.

The losses for both the biggest parties point to the further fragmentation of Germany’s political landscape, raising the possibility of different coalitions in future.

The SPD, Merkel’s junior coalition partner at the national level, wants to form a coalition with the Greens and possibly the radical Left party in the city-state of Berlin.

The Greens won 15.9 percent of the Berlin vote, down 1.7 percentage points from 2011, while the Left party was up 4 points at 15.7 percent, according to ZDF.

The AfD, founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, was the big winner. It has in the last year played to voters’ fears about the integration of the roughly one million migrants who entered Germany last year.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting at the lower house of parliament in Berlin, Germany, September 6, 2016. REUTERS/Stefanie Loos

“From zero to double digits, that’s unique for Berlin. The grand coalition has been voted out - not yet at the national level, but that will happen next year,” said AfD candidate Georg Pazderski to cheering supporters after the results.

Commentators said the result indicated that the party looked poised to enter the lower house of parliament in 2017.

“With the Berlin result, the AfD has consolidated its position and shown it can appeal to voters across the board - it is now represented in a big city, eastern German states and in more affluent western states like Baden-Wuerttemberg,” said Thomas Jaeger, political scientist at Cologne University.</s>Berliners will go to the polls on Sunday to vote in a state parliamentary election that could deal another blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The voting in Berlin, the last state election this year, will elect members to the 149-seat state parliament of Berlin.

Incumbent Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) will lead to the polls his "grand coalition" of SPD and the local branch of Merkel’s CDU.

The most recent polls, published by ZDF and the Berliner Zeitung on Thursday, put the center-left SPD in the lead with 23-24 percent of votes.

Merkel’s center-right CDU is expected to poll 17-18 percent of votes, followed by the Greens with 15-17 percent and the far-left Linke with 14.5-15 percent.

The ruling Christian Democrats suffered a humiliating defeat in the chancellor’s home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in early September when they were beaten into third place by the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD).

The anti-migrant AfD gained prominence across the country amid concerns over the federal government’s open-arms policy on refugees. It is expected to gain 13-14 percent in the Berlin legislature.

According to the Berliner Zeitung, Berlin’s SPD-CDU coalition looks set to lose its majority in the parliament. The next legislature will likely be a so-called red-red-green coalition of SPD, Linke and the Greens.</s>BERLIN (AP) — The Latest on state elections in Berlin (all times local):

Exit polls show the Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party emerged from Berlin state elections as the strongest two parties, but lost enough support they won't be able to continue a coalition government together.

ARD public television reported Sunday that the SPD won 23 percent of the vote, dropping 5.3 percent, while the CDU won 18 percent, down 5.4 percent.

The anti-immigrant nationalist Alternative for Germany party won 11.5 percent of the vote, behind the Greens and the Left party, each with 16.5 percent, but with more than enough to enter Berlin's state parliament, its 10th nationwide.

Without enough support for the governing SPD-CDU "grand coalition" to continue, the most likely new governing alliance appeared to be a combination of the SPD, Greens and Left party.

Voters in the German state of Berlin are casting ballots in a state election predicted to result in a fresh setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel's party.

Her Christian Democratic Union has been the junior coalition partner to the center-left Social Democrats in the capital for the past five years.

The city of 3.5 million has experienced a population boom during that time, putting pressure on housing, schools and its transport infrastructure.

The influx of tens of thousands of migrants over the past year has also become a campaign issue, though to a lesser degree than in other, less cosmopolitan parts of the country.

Pollsters forecast that the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany will easily pass the 5-percent threshold to enter the Berlin state assembly for the first time, its 10th nationwide.</s>BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered a historic loss in Berlin state elections on Sunday (Monday in Manila) while the right-wing populist AfD gained fresh support, riding a wave of popular anger over her open-door refugee policy.

The anti-Islam Alternative for Germany party won around 14 percent, according to public broadcasters’ projections, in the capital that has long prided itself on being a hip, diverse and multicultural city.

The strong AfD result, thanks to support especially in the vast tower block districts in Berlin’s former communist east, meant it has now won opposition seats in ten of Germany’s 16 states, a year ahead of national elections.

Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won only 17.5 percent — its worst post-war result in the city, before or after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall — likely spelling the end of its term as junior coalition partner to the Social Democrats (SPD), who won around 22 percent.

The election in the chronically indebted city-state of 3.5 million people was dominated by local issues including poor public services, crumbling school buildings, late trains and a housing shortage, as well as problems in coping with the migrant influx.

The biggest European Union economy took in one million asylum seekers last year, and over 70,000 of them came to Berlin, with thousands still housed in the cavernous hangars of the Nazi-built former Tempelhof airport, once the hub for the Cold War-era Berlin airlift.

Berlin’s SPD Mayor Michael Mueller had dramatically warned before the polls that a strong AfD result would be “seen throughout the world as a sign of the resurgence of the right and of Nazis in Germany.”

‘Zero to double-digits’

 The vote marked another milestone for the upstart AfD, which has campaigned on a xenophobic platform, similar to France’s National Front or far-right populists in Austria and the Netherlands.

“From zero to double-digits, that’s a first for Berlin,” cheered the AfD’s top Berlin candidate, Georg Pazderski, predicting that the electorate would next year kick out Merkel’s national right-left grand coalition.

“We’ve arrived in the capital,” said the party’s co-leader Beatrix von Storch, hailing the “huge success.”

Merkel’s CDU, which has a national majority, in Berlin has served as junior coalition partner to Mueller’s SPD, traditionally the strongest party in the city .

Mueller has rejected a new coalition with the CDU and was seen likely to team up with the ecologist Greens and the far-left Die Linke party, each of whom scored around 15 percent.

Such a “red-red-green” coalition, its members hope, could one day be replicated at the national level.

Merkel meanwhile—after suffering a stinging loss to the AfD in another regional poll two weeks ago—will face further pressure “to explain her political strategy,” Gero Neugebauer of Berlin’s Free University told the Handelsblatt business daily.

Another analyst, Kai Arzheimer of Mainz University, also predicted tensions would rise between the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, but he stressed the alliance was unlikely to change its top candidate, Merkel.

“To ask this question one year before federal elections would be suicidal, especially since in the CDU there is no credible successor,” he said.

The CSU’s Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder nonetheless launched a broadside, charging that Merkel’s government must “regain citizens’ support in the refugee question and finally strictly limit immigration and get a handle on the security problems.”</s>BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party suffered a historic loss in Berlin state elections Sunday while the right-wing populist AfD gained fresh support, riding a wave of popular anger over her open-door refugee policy.

The anti-Islam Alternative for Germany party won around 14 percent, according to public broadcasters’ projections, in the capital which has long prided itself on being a hip, diverse and multicultural city.

The strong AfD result, thanks to support especially in the vast tower block districts in Berlin’s former communist east, meant it has now won opposition seats in ten of Germany’s 16 states, a year ahead of national elections.

Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won only 17.5 percent — its worst post-war result in the city, before or after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall — likely spelling the end of its term as junior coalition partner to the Social Democrats (SPD), who won around 22 percent.

The election in the chronically indebted city-state of 3.5 million people was dominated by local issues including poor public services, crumbling school buildings, late trains and a housing shortage, as well as problems in coping with the migrant influx.

The biggest EU economy took in one million asylum seekers last year, and over 70,000 of them came to Berlin, with thousands still housed in the cavernous hangars of the Nazi-built former Tempelhof airport, once the hub for the Cold War-era Berlin airlift.

Berlin’s SPD Mayor Michael Mueller had dramatically warned before the polls that a strong AfD result would be “seen throughout the world as a sign of the resurgence of the right and of Nazis in Germany”.

The vote marked another milestone for the upstart AfD, which has campaigned on a xenophobic platform, similar to France’s National Front or far-right populists in Austria and the Netherlands.

“From zero to double-digits, that’s a first for Berlin,” cheered the AfD’s top Berlin candidate, Georg Pazderski, predicting that the electorate would next year kick out Merkel’s national right-left grand coalition.

“We’ve arrived in the capital,” said the party’s co-leader Beatrix von Storch, hailing the “huge success”.

Merkel’s CDU, which has a national majority, in Berlin has served as junior coalition partner to Mueller’s SPD, traditionally the strongest party in the city .

Mueller has rejected a new coalition with the CDU and was seen likely to team up with the ecologist Greens and the far-left Die Linke party, each of whom scored around 15 percent.

Such a “red-red-green” coalition, its members hope, could one day be replicated at the national level.

Merkel meanwhile — after suffering a stinging loss to the AfD in another regional poll two weeks ago — will face further pressure “to explain her political strategy”, Gero Neugebauer of Berlin’s Free University told the Handelsblatt business daily.

Another analyst, Kai Arzheimer of Mainz University, also predicted tensions would rise between the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU, but he stressed the alliance was unlikely to change its top candidate, Merkel.

“To ask this question one year before federal elections would be suicidal, especially since in the CDU there is no credible successor,” he said.

The CSU’s Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soeder nonetheless launched a broadside, charging that Merkel’s government must “regain citizens’ support in the refugee question and finally strictly limit immigration and get a handle on the security problems.”

In Berlin — a city famously dubbed “poor but sexy” by its previous mayor, bon vivant Klaus Wowereit — the election campaign was dominated not just by migrant policies but also widespread frustration over poor public services.

With little industry and an above-national average jobless rate of 10 percent, Europe’s techno party capital is often seen as an amusingly chaotic exception in otherwise orderly and punctual Germany.

Berlin became a national laughing stock for a grand airport project that is now five years behind schedule and three times over budget.

In another debacle, thousands of refugees were left waiting for days and weeks last year at Berlin’s then hopelessly overwhelmed Lageso central migrant registration centre, with many forced to sleep in the dirt outside.

All the problems have helped fuel voter distrust of Germany’s mainstream “people’s parties” who have governed Berlin in an unhappy coalition, the SPD and CDU.

The CDU’s top Berlin candidate, Frank Henkel, called the vote result “a black day for the people’s parties” and said “it is very alarming when fringe parties like the AfD or Die Linke between them attract a quarter of the vote.”

“Berlin is becoming ever more fragmented,” said Lothar Probst of Bremen University, speaking on Phoenix TV, as the SPD, despite winning, also booked its worst post-war result.

“The parties at the centre, the mainstream parties, have lost a lot of ground, spelling a shifting dynamic in the political landscape … What we’re seeing is the erosion of support for the big ‘people’s parties’.” AFP</s>German voters delivered another slap in the face to Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, handing her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) its worst-ever result in Berlin’s city-state election.

With the migration crisis dominating German politics, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) enjoyed its 10th consecutive state election win, entering the Berlin city-state parliament with 15 per cent support, according to exit polls.

The result means the outgoing Social Democratic Party (SPD) mayor Michael Müller is likely to form a three-way centre-left coalition with Green and Linke (left) parties.

The Berlin poll, Germany’s last state election for 2016, saw a high turnout of 66 per cent, leading to an hour-long wait at some polling stations. After a campaign dominated by social issues, in particular a squeeze on housing and public services, the German capital’s struggle with the migration crisis was the dominant theme.

“We managed it, we have a mandate to form a new government,” said Mr Müller.

In truth it was a bad evening for Germany’s two big parties, with SPD and CDU losing some 5 per cent support each to finish with 23 and 18 per cent, according to exit polls.

SPD federal leader Sigmar Gabriel said the most important signal was that the German capital would remain a city of social inclusion and that the “vast majority were not receptive to far-right rallying cries”.

But jubilant AfD leaders, including the party’s top candidate for Berlin Georg Pazderski, said they were confident they had found a winning election formula – tapping into public concern over migration and the consequences for German domestic security.

“The trend is clear: the CDU and SPD are losing and falling to historic levels, while we are winning,” said Dr Beatrix von Storch, AfD head in Berlin.

The other big winner in the capital was the Linke Party, gaining almost 5 percentage points to about 16 per cent, finishing neck and neck with the Greens.

With 3.6 million citizens and 2.5 million voters, the Berlin capital carries little political weight in the grander scheme of German federal politics.

But Sunday’s result had symbolic value with the likely ejection of the CDU from power as the far-right AfD entered yet another state parliament with double-digit support.

Second, Berlin voters may have triggered a political premiere in Germany if the AfD-related election arithmetic forces outgoing SPD mayor Müller to seek a three-way alliance with the Greens and Linke.

The Berlin poll ends this year’s regional polls – and a bad run for Dr Merkel’s CDU.

Two weeks ago it finished third behind the AfD in her eastern political homeland. Worryingly for her: the largest bloc of defecting CDU voters – roughly 32,000 – departed to the far-right AfD.

“The AfD is not a party with a programme but one that pushes protest, and all parties are suffering as a result,” said Prof Monika Grütters, a CDU politician in Berlin and federal culture minister in Dr Merkel’s government.

At Monday morning postmortem sessions, the Berlin result will step up pressure on Dr Merkel to win back public confidence over her migration strategy.

But the election calendar for Germany’s 16 federal states means she has only a short window of opportunity in which to do so. Three further state elections loom in 2017, including a crucial poll in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

That poll is due in May, four months before federal elections, but NRW’s population of 18 million means it is unlikely much political business will be done from then on in the last month’s of Dr Merkel’s third term.

While the chancellor has, until recently, been a highly popular federal leader, her party has been squeezed in the last three years since the foundation of the AfD.

The CDU and its Bavarian CSU allies have finished first in just half of Germany’s last cycle of 16 federal state polls. If the CDU is ejected as junior grand coalition partner in the Berlin city-state government, Dr Merkel’s alliance holds power in just six of 16 federal states.

On paper, the Berlin result changes nothing for Dr Merkel’s own grand coalition in the Bundestag. But it tips the law-making balance of power even further away from the German chancellor and her CDU in the upper house, the Bundesrat, where the federal states meet.</s>German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was reeling on Monday after another stinging poll loss, as an upstart populist party poached votes in a Berlin State election by railing against her liberal refugee policy.

It was the fifth regional poll in a row showing losses for the Christian Democrats (CDU).

Analysts said the drubbing would force Ms. Merkel, widely seen as Europe’s most influential leader, to focus on German affairs at a time when the EU is facing sluggish economic growth, growing divisions over its migration policy and Britain’s impending exit.

The Berlin vote continued a trend of a fracturing of the electorate and surging support for fringe parties, with both the far Left and the Right wing the winners of the day.

It also mirrored the march of anti-migrant parties in France, Austria and the Netherlands and Republican maverick Donald Trump in the United States.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) harnessed a wave of anger over the refugee influx to claim around 14 per cent of the vote in a city that has long prided itself on its diversity and international appeal.

The strong AfD result, thanks to support especially in the vast tower block districts in Berlin’s former communist east, meant it has now won opposition seats in 10 of Germany’s 16 States.

Its string of victories indicates that for the first time since World War II, a party to the right of the CDU has established a foothold in German politics.

Berlin’s SPD Mayor Michael Mueller had dramatically warned before the polls that a strong AfD result would be “seen throughout the world as a sign of the resurgence of the right and of Nazis in Germany”.

Ms. Merkel’s CDU won just 17.6 per cent — its worst post-war result in the city, before or after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall —likely spelling the end of its term as junior coalition partner to the Social Democrats (SPD), who won just under 22 per cent.

The German leader was expected to acknowledge the defeat at a news conference later on Monday but also emphasise the specific, local aspects of the race.

”The CDU lost, but this time it is not primarily a defeat for the Chancellor,” news website Spiegel Online wrote. — AFP</s>Three-way coalition likely in Berlin after state elections

BERLIN (AP) — A three-way coalition of Social Democrats, the Green Party and the Left Party seems likely in Berlin, after Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party endured a set-back in state elections in the German capital.

While the Social Democrats (SPD) and Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) emerged from the Berlin election as the two strongest parties, both lost some support which means they won't be able to continue a coalition government, official results showed Monday.

The SPD received 21.6 percent, dropping 6.7 points, while the CDU received 17.6 percent, down 5.7 points.

Many voters drifted further to the left and right, with the Left Party climbing 3.9 points to 15.6 percent.

The nationalist anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, known as AfD, easily entered its 10th state parliament with 14.2 percent of the vote.

Top candidate for the Social Democrats and governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Mueller arrives at the party's main election event after first results announced in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Exit polls show the Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party emerged from Berlin state elections as the strongest two parties, but lost enough support they won't be able to continue a coalition government together. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The top candidate for the Social Democrats and governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Mueller, center, speaks to supporters at the party's main election event after first results announced in Berlin, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Exit polls show the Social Democrats and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party emerged from Berlin state elections as the strongest two parties, but lost enough support they won't be able to continue a coalition government together. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)</s>He’s a 51-year-old high school dropout with the charisma of a cheap can opener — looking and sounding like a shy bookkeeper. Yet Michael Mueller is mayor of Berlin, Germany’s biggest and most dynamic metropolis.

To non-Germans, it might look like an odd match, but so far it’s worked. Dare to be dull.

Pollsters and political scientists, who note that Germans prefer bland over blazing leaders, are predicting Mueller and his center-left Social Democrats will prevail in a close race against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats in Berlin. Candidates from four other parties with chances of winning the mayor’s office are competing in Sunday’s elections.

A trained printer who worked for 14 years in his father’s small shop producing wedding invitations, business cards, beer coasters and pamphlets before jumping into politics, Mueller lives in a rental apartment in the same unfashionable Tempelhof section of Berlin he grew up in — with his wife, who works in a bank, and their two teenage children.

Aside from those details and his passion for the Berlin working-class dish of spicy currywurst sausages, little is known about Mueller’s private life. The mild-mannered man who rarely smiles insists on keeping that out of the public eye, in sharp contrast to his flamboyant predecessor, Klaus Wowereit.

Mueller, embracing his image as a square, has yet to win an election on his own after being handed the mayor’s job on a silver platter two years ago by Wowereit, who suddenly got bored with the nitty-gritty of Berlin’s increasingly complicated politics and quit after 13 years of running Berlin with its piles of debt and mountains of problems.

Many troubles result from the never-ending struggles of trying to merge East and West Berlin after the wall fell in 1989 and Germany reunited in 1990. When Berlin came back together, it had two of everything — two city halls, two police departments and even two zoos. Its once-mighty industrial base had all but disappeared after the war, leaving it as one of Europe’s poorest and most indebted capital cities at the turn of the millennium.

Enter Wowereit. By labeling Berlin “poor but sexy” and acquiring the richly deserved moniker as “Partymeister” instead of “Buergermeister” (mayor), he helped turn the city-state of 3.5 million into one of the world’s most exciting destinations — a popular spot filled with Internet start-ups, trendy clubs and low rents that attracted countless thousands of artists and others in creative industries from around the world.

The population of “Cool Berlin” is now growing by 40,000 a year and the jobless rate, once in double digits, has steadily fallen.

Wowereit, Germany’s first openly gay political leader, was even once considered a potential candidate for chancellor. But at some point the glamour grew old. Berliners, as if feeling a hangover, yearned for someone new who could fix their roads and bridges, and get their new international airport finally finished after four years of embarrassing delays, for which Wowereit was blamed.

Mueller was long a fiercely loyal lieutenant to Wowereit among the Berlin Social Democrats. Wowereit made Mueller his handpicked successor by promoting him to deputy mayor in 2011 and then turned over the reins in the middle of his term to give Mueller a chance to raise his profile and a running start at election — a common practice in Germany when elected leaders are eager to keep their party in power.

The no-nonsense Mueller seemed like the perfect antidote to the swashbuckling Wowereit.

“Maybe things will become a bit duller now!” said Mueller in a rare outburst of enthusiasm in his acceptance speech upon taking over.

Wowereit echoed Mueller’s comments. “I’m looking forward to being bored,” he said.

In a recent interview with the Berlin magazine Zitty, an introspective Mueller revealed that he never loses his temper. He also acknowledged having regrets that he didn’t follow his parents’ advice to stay in school as a teenager: “A lot of things in life would have been a lot easier with the high school diploma. I had to fight harder because of that and failed to recognize at the time that I should have done more when I was in school.”

But he added: “I like to keep my private life private.”

Once in the mayor’s office, Mueller quickly lifted the Social Democrats back over the 30% threshold in opinion polls after they had fallen precariously to the low 20s. The party has since slipped back down in polls and is expected to win about 24% on Sunday, yet still come in first just ahead of the Christian Democrats, the former communist Left Party, the Greens and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party.

Mueller wants to ditch the Christian Democrats as his junior coalition partner after five years of a frosty partnership and form a three-way, left-leaning coalition with the Greens and Left Party — which could serve as a template for the federal elections next September that could challenge Merkel.

Mueller faced widespread criticism for the city government’s inept handling the initial flood of refugees from Syria and elsewhere last year, about 80,000 of whom arrived within a few short weeks in Berlin and were at first poorly sheltered and cared for. He blamed the Christian Democrats for those chaotic scenes and implemented sweeping organizational changes that fixed many of those problems.

Mueller’s proudest accomplishment as mayor? “We added 4,500 jobs in the city bureaucracy since I took office,” he said in all sincerity.

“It’s hard for me to say anything good or bad about Mueller because he’s just so incredibly dull and no one knows what he stands for,” said Michael Lemke, a Berlin real estate agent. “It was all a bit too much with Wowereit. He was a party-gangster. Berlin needed a correction after that.”

Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin’s Free University, put Mueller’s odd appeal this way: “He comes across like an undertaker. He’s such an average, ordinary guy. But it’s exactly what Berliners were craving. They were tired of the parties and limelight.”</s>BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she would turn back time if she could to better prepare Germany for last year’s migrant influx, striking a conciliatory tone and taking some blame for her party’s drubbing in a Berlin city vote on Sunday.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) suffered their second electoral blow in two weeks in Sunday’s vote in the capital, slumping to their lowest level since 1990 in the state election in which voters rejected her open-door refugee policy.

“I take my share of the responsibility that lies with me as party chairwoman and chancellor,” Merkel, sounding the most conciliatory she has in over a decade in office, told a news conference.

In prepared remarks, Merkel said she would do things differently if she could go back again and prepare better to cope with the influx of around one million migrants who flooded into Germany last year.

“If I could, I would turn back the time by many, many years,” Merkel said, sounding particularly somber.

Commenting on a recent poll showing 82 percent of voters wanted a change in her migrant policy, she added, “If I knew what change in policy people wanted, I would be ready to consider it and talk about it.”

“But the poll does not give any advice on that,” she added.

A backlash against her migrant policy has raised questions about whether Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, will stand for a fourth term next year. Given a dearth of options in her party, however, she is still the most likely candidate.

Asked whether she will run again next year, Merkel smiled and declined to comment. She said she was still motivated.

A year before the national election, the Berlin result has deepened rifts in her conservative camp, with her CDU and their Bavarian allies – the Christian Social Union (CSU) – blaming each other within minutes of Sunday’s results.

The CSU wants to cap the number of migrants coming into Germany at 200,000 a year. Merkel has so far rejected such a ceiling, but sounded ready for compromise.

She said that if the wish of the German people was for the country not to be swamped with uncontrolled and unregulated migration, “then that is exactly what I am fighting for.”

Merkel is pushing for a European solution to the migration challenge by securing the continent’s external borders, coming to an agreement on migration deals with countries like Turkey and distributing refugees across Europe.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD), which with 14 percent of the vote will enter its 10th of the country’s 16 regional assemblies, said it would target a double digit score in next year’s national vote after the “terrific” Berlin result.

“More and more people are convinced and recognizing that we are a real alternative, not just for Berlin but for Germany,” AfD co-leader Joerg Meuthen told a news conference in the capital.
Voters head to the polls in Berlin, Germany, to elect members to the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin. Latest polling indicates the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) are expected to make strong gains.