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Polling stations opened across Germany on Sunday in a high-stakes election to select 630 members of the lower house of parliament, known as the Bundestag, amid concerns that far-right sentiment was on the rise in the country as migration policies were at the center stage of political debate.
A population of over 59 million voters in Europe’s biggest economy is eligible to cast ballots.
The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), were ahead in polls compiled by the Berlin-based election research institute Infratest Dimap, state-run broadcaster DW reported. The Union parties had an edge with a lead of more than 10 percent over the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was polling second at the time, the report stated.
Meanwhile, Bjorn Hocke, one of the most controversial figures in the AfD party who is popular among the youth, faced criticism for using Nazi terminology in his speeches, with many mainstream German parties viewing him as a “pariah”.
“If they… see a bit of a pop star in me, then that’s fine because the youth also need idols like that,” Hocke told CNN last week.
Migration is a hot topic in the European Union, with leaders of the 27-member bloc often squabbling over how to implement a unified migration and asylum policy.
With polling already underway, the voters will continue to cast ballots until 6 p.m to elect politicians to the Bundestag. And unless a party emerges as an outright majority winner by itself, the party with the most representatives in the Bundestag will seek to build a coalition government with parliamentary majority. According to DW, the party with the maximum number of votes in a ruling coalition appoints its declared chancellor candidate to lead the government.
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