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BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies are preparing to record their worst result in more than 60 years of regional elections on Sunday in the region, which may increase tensions in the fragile region. German coalition government.
The leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Horst Seehofer, and the Bavarian Prime Minister, Markus Soeder, appear on stage at a rally for the CSU election campaign Munich, Germany, October 12, 2018. REUTERS / Michael Dalder
According to the latest polls, the Christian Social Union (CSU) will gain about 34%, losing the absolute majority with which the center-right party has controlled its central-southeast during most of the following year. -war.
Polling stations open at 8:00 am (06:00 GMT) and broadcasters are expected to publish polls at the exit of the polls shortly after 18:00 (1600 GMT).
Environmentalists and Greens supporting immigration are expected to more than double their vote, up to 19%, and move beyond the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) as the second most powerful party.
The Free Voters regional protest party and the anti-immigration alternative party for Germany (AfD) are expected to win about 10% of the vote.
This could complicate the efforts of CSU Prime Minister Markus Soeder to form a stable coalition government in Bavaria.
The fragmented election results could force Soeder, who dismissed a coalition with the AfD, in a clumsy alliance with the center-left Greens.
Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU party and Minister of the Interior in Merkel's federal government, could be asked to give up at least one of his posts after the election in Bavaria, because his radical speech against the applicants for asylum is likely to scare away voters.
"We lost confidence because of CSU," Welt am Sonntag Volker Bouffier, deputy head of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, told reporters. He accused Seehofer of undermining the image of the conservative CDU / CSU alliance.
Bouffier is the prime minister of the state of Hesse, where more regional elections will be held later this month.
Mrs Seehofer is one of the most ferocious critics of Merkel since her decision in 2015 to host more than one million migrants. He has progressively moved CSU, the sister party of the CDU, right to counter the rise of the party AfD.
Divisions between conservative allies have widened further since March, when an inconclusive national election forced them to form a coalition with the SPD, the leftist party.
The fourth and possibly last Merkel government has nearly collapsed twice, due to debates over immigration and a scandal over the former German spy-master. The parties also disagree on how to phase out polluting diesel cars and on the opportunity to grant tax breaks to the rich.
Report by Michael Nienaber; Edited by Clelia Oziel
