Angela Merkel ally shrugs off poll setback in Bavaria
Both parties in the German chancellor’s ‘grand coalition’ suffered losses to the Greens and the far right.
A prominent ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel has dismissed speculation over his future and insisted he will work to keep supporting the German leader’s national government.
Horst Seehofer, the country’s interior minister, was speaking after a poll setback in Bavaria for both parties in Mrs Merkel’s “grand coalition”.
Party leaders appeared keen to maintain discipline ahead of another state election in two weeks, in neighbouring Hesse.
Mr Seehofer told reporters his conservative Christian Social Union will “will play our part (…) so that the ‘grand coalition’ can steadily continue to do its work”.
His CSU is the Bavaria-only sister party to Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
Mr Seehofer’s conservative party received 37.2% of the vote, down from 47.7% five years ago.
Sunday’s result was its worst performance since 1950 in a state vote in Bavaria, which it has traditionally dominated.
Some in the party have blamed Mr Seehofer for the result and hinted the 69-year-old should resign, a suggestion he appeared to reject.
“I won’t hold a discussion about my position,” he said.
Mr Seehofer insisted that his party still has “a special role in Germany’s political landscape”.
The CSU is tipped to partner with the Free Voters, a local conservative rival, to form a government in Munich.
The centre-left Social Democrats, who only reluctantly joined Mrs Merkel’s national coalition earlier this year, received just 9.7% of the vote, less than half what they got in 2013, their worst in Bavaria since the Second World War.
The big winners of the election were the environmentalist Greens, who came second, and the far-right Alternative for Germany, which entered the state legislature.
It now sits in 15 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments, as well as the national parliament.
