ISA Global

A few years ago the Alternative for Germany party wasn’t even in existence.

Now, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their national coalition partners, the Social Democrats, must wake up to the reality that the new political kids on the block and their anti-immigration policies have to be taken seriously.

The German Chancellor, who was born in east Germany, is the undoubted backbone of the European Union.

After the Brexit vote, she was the voice of calm insisting that European unity would not be broken.

She insists too that she has no regrets about her open-door migration policy, which saw more than a million migrants taken in by Germany last year.

Her own constituency is in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – a rural, sparsely populated place largely untouched by migration.

But at state elections, her Christian Democrat party came a devastating third behind the Social Democrats and the AfD (Alternative for Germany) party.

The AfD was only formed three years ago but it’s gained real energy and momentum largely because of its anti-immigration stance.

Mrs Merkel is currently at the G20 summit in China and will wake up to the news.

At the AfD party looking out of the historic castle and lake in Schwerin as the first exit polls came in, there were loud cheers.

The champagne was already out in preparation such was the party’s confidence that it would shake German politics.

As its pretty much unknown leaders started to bask in international attention, they were quick to say this was a resounding vote against Mrs Merkel.

I asked a local journalist if the chancellor would be worried.

He looked at me and responded: “That word’s too soft. An understatement.”

This may have been a local election but people voted on national issues.

And that doesn’t bode well for Mrs Merkel ahead of national elections next year.

She was expected to stand for a fourth term as chancellor. She may well now have to think long and hard about that.