3-year old party threatens 12-year of Chancellery in Germany

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party founders probably not have thought that within just three years of forming, they would become the biggest threat to German chancellor Angela Merkel. For the AfD party, it has been just the rise in politics. Founded in April 2013, the party won 4.7 percent of the votes in the 2013 federal election, just missing the 5 percent electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag. In 2014 the party won 7.1 percent of the votes and 7 out of 96 German seats in the European election, and as of March 2016, the AfD has gained representation in eight German state parliaments out of sixteen.

The party represents itself as Right-wing populists and has been gaining over its hard stance towards Muslims and immigrants. In the latest, Saxony-Anhalt election, it has won 25 seats out of 87 and has emerged as the second largest party.

While AfD has been a story of rising, the support for Angela Merkel, who has been the Chancellor of Germany for third consecutive term, and has planned to run for the fourth, has been waning. Ms. Merkel has been suffering the worst downturn of support in her entire career as Chancellor largely due to her open door immigration policy. According to the latest poll, around half of the German public surveyed do not support a fourth term for her, only 42 percent of the people supports her returning.

Ms. Merkel is widely expected and likely to win a fourth term, however, it will be her weakest winning ever and we are probably looking at the beginning of the end of the Merkel Era.