According to preliminary results, the German far-right has experienced a surge on Sunday 1 September, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in two regional elections in the former GDR in the form of a warning for the fragile coalition of Angela Merkel .

The Chancellor's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) remains the largest party in Saxony, but with 32% of the vote, it loses 7.4 percentage points from the previous election in 2014, while the far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) ranks second with 27.5% of votes, compared to nearly 10% five years ago.

In his Brandenburg stronghold, which surrounds Berlin and has been in charge since 1990, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) also retains its first place with 27.2% of the vote in front of the AfD, which gets 22.8% and doubles practically his score of 2014.

AfD, which made its entry into the national parliament in 2017, exploits voters' anger against migration policy and the upcoming closure of coal mines in the two Länder. He presents himself as the heir of the movement that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall three decades ago.

The decline in the CDU and the SPD, which was expected, is however not as important as feared by the staffs and this result could give a little respite to the ruling coalition in Berlin.

"Saxony of friendship has won," said Minister-President Michael Kretschmer, who ruled out collaboration with AfD. "It's a good day for our Land."

The SPD will take stock in December

AfD felt that this result could contribute to shattering the CDU-SPD coalition.

"The other parties can not continue as if nothing had happened," said Alice Weidel, leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag.

The SPD, led by an interim trio since its defeat at last May's European elections, is expected to elect its new president next December. The party promised to take stock of the coalition formed with conservatives CDU-CSU.

Manuela Schwesig, one of the interim leaders of the party, worried about this new push from the far right in East Germany.

"We have to understand why so many people have chosen to protest in this way," she said. "We must all be aware that these results of AfD show that we must take into account the concerns of the people of the East."

With AFP and Reuters