<p>Germany&rsquo;s nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party performed strongly this Sunday in a key state election, winning 20.8% of the vote to take second place. The center-left Social Democrats won with 30.6%.</p>
<p>The vote was held in ;Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the region known as Chancellor Angela Merkel&rsquo;s political base. Merkel&rsquo;s Christian Democrats (CDU) performed poorly, earning the lowest score yet in the state at 19%. ;</p>
<p>Chancellor Merkel&rsquo;s popularity has suffered over the past year as Germany struggles to coexist with the 1 million+ mostly Muslims migrants now living within its borders. ;Merkel&rsquo;s sympathetic stance towards migrants &#8211; ;despite rising rates of crime and sexual assault &#8211; ;has given considerable strength to the anti-immigration AfD party, and Merkel&rsquo;s loss of power would lead to massive changes in Germany. ;</p>
<p>It is important to note that the AfD is not anti-Jewish, but many worry that the party&#8217;s harsh stance towards foreigners could steer Germany back towards its dark past. ;Already the upstart party has proposed banning burqas (an Islamic garment that covers the face and body) ;and minarets (mosque prayer towers), insisting that Islam does not deserve ;the constitutional rights that protect religion.</p>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s population of 80 million is roughly 5% Muslim. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We will manage&rdquo; the crisis, says Merkel. &ldquo;Sometimes you have to endure such controversies.&rdquo; ;Merkel&rsquo;s immigration policies were a key issue in the campaign for Sunday&rsquo;s election, and the chancellor shows no signs of changing her mind.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This result, and the strong performance of AfD, is bitter for many, for everyone in our party,&rdquo; laments Christian Democrat General Secretary Peter Tauber. ;Many voters ignored the state government&rsquo;s successful record, he explained, &ldquo;because among a recognizable part, there was an explicit wish to voice displeasure and protest, and we saw that particularly strongly in the discussion about refugees.</p>
<p>Merkel has not yet announced whether she will seek a fourth term in 2017. Her bloc remains in the national lead, however, and most expect that she will run for re-election. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;She is, in people&rsquo;s opinion, personally responsible for the border opening, and she has to deal with that,&rdquo; says political science professor Karl-Rudolf Korte. &ldquo;But she can deal with it &ndash; she has a year.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>AfD leader Frauke Petry celebrated Sunday&rsquo;s vote as a &ldquo;blow&rdquo; to Angela Merkel. ;&ldquo;Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of Angela Merkel&rsquo;s chancellorship today,&rdquo; adds state AfD leader Leif-Erik Holm.</p>
<p>The three-year-old AfD party is the first anti-euro party to ever win seats in the German regional parliament. The AfD is currently represented in 9 of Germany&rsquo;s 16 state legislatures and hopes to enter Parliament next year. ;</p>
<p>Sunday&rsquo;s vote was the first of five before a national election planned for September 2017.</p>