BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday ruled out realigning her conservatives further to the right in order to fend off a growing challenge from Eurosceptics, who surpassed expectations is state elections at the weekend.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) won more than 10 percent of the vote in Brandenburg and Thuringia, two east German states.
"Looking at results in the federal election or opinion polls I don't see that we are in an unsuccessful phase," Merkel said, signalling she did not plan any immediate response.
The AfD was founded in early 2013 to oppose euro zone bailouts. It has been ostracised by mainstream parties, which portray it as a fringe party that flirts with the far right.
A year ago, it fell just short of the 5 percent hurdle in the federal election, but in May it got into the European Parliament. It is polling 7 percent nationally and will now have seats in three of the 16 German state assemblies.
Surpassing all forecasts, it won 10.6 percent of the vote in Thuringia on Sunday and 12.2 percent in Brandenburg, improving on its surprise 9.7 percent in Saxony only two weeks ago.
"The established parties' strategy of ostracising us has backfired," said Bernd Lucke, the AfD's leader.
The conservative wing of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) blames the AfD's meteoric rise on her centrist tendencies which have been exacerbated in two 'grand coalitions' with the Social Democrats (SPD), from 2005-2009 and in her current term.
CDU right-wingers share the AfD's concerns about euro zone bailouts, law and order and family values and accuse Merkel of creating an opening for the AfD on the political right.
"When a new force takes position right of centre, it's not a big problem for the Left or Greens but it's a major challenge for the CDU and (its Bavarian sister party) CSU," said the Berliner Circle, a conservative faction of the CDU.
Merkel pointed to her third-term election victory and high standing in polls as evidence her policies are succeeding. "Good government" is the best response to the upstart AfD, she said.
"We are a centrist 'Volkspartei' (people's party) with conservative, Christian liberal and social roots which must all be reflected equally in the CDU's nature," she said.
ON ALERT
But as well as exacerbating tensions inside the conservative camp, the AfD's rise highlights the CDU's lack of a centre-right coalition partner after their former Free Democat (FDP) allies crashed out of the German parliament in 2013 and were ejected from the assemblies in all three states that have just voted.
Merkel rules out any alliance with the AfD, but with the SPD adamant they won't be her junior partners again after the 2017 election, the CDU may have to reconsider.
"The AfD is still mostly a protest party attracting former voters from all other parties as well as former non-voters. That is a pattern we've seen for other parties before," said political analyst Thorsten Faas.
"But clearly it is substantially located on the right side of the political spectrum, hence the CDU should be - and obviously is - on alert," said the Mainz University professor.
Merkel's CDU is also braced for an upset in Thuringia. It came first on Sunday in the state it has run for 24 years but faces a challenge to forming a coalition from the reformed communist Left, which came second with their best-ever result.
The third-placed SPD could bail out of a coalition with the CDU in Thuringia to be junior partners to the Left - a first that could pave the way for such a left-leaning federal government in 2017.
Together with the smaller Greens, the Left and SPD could form a three-way leftist alliance that could one day rule at the federal level. The SPD dropped its self-imposed ban on federal coalitions with the Left party after the 2013 election.
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