Merkel Vows To Win Back AfD Voters (Video)

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fourth term has just started. Once again, as is the habit, she gave a lengthy interview on the national channel ARD to explain the plans of her government.

One item that stood out: to win back the voters of the AfD (it is mostly agreed by political analysts that her CDU/CSU conservative party lost too many votes to the far-right AfD).

Ms Merkel stated: "Our goal is to solve the problems of those who voted for this party out of protest."

"That means, of course, our aspiration is to reduce their numbers and, ideally, get them out of German parliament."

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="de" dir="ltr">Wie steht Angela <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Merkel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Merkel</a> zur <a href="https://twitter.com/AfD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Afd</a>? Und was hat sie in ihrer vierten Amtszeit vor? Mehr in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/farbebekennen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#farbebekennen</a> mit <a href="https://twitter.com/TinaHassel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TinaHassel</a> und Rainald Becker - um 20:15 Uhr in <a href="https://twitter.com/DasErste?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DasErste</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kanzlerinwahl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kanzlerinwahl</a> <a href="https://t.co/LiUa8XCLsJ">pic.twitter.com/LiUa8XCLsJ</a></p>&mdash; Bericht aus Berlin (@ARD_BaB) <a href="https://twitter.com/ARD_BaB/status/973949712393961476?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Ms Merkel did state that she didn’t want to concentrate on the AfD party itself, but rather emphasize to solve the problems plaguing German voters.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Merkel was elected chancellor by parliament with the slimmest ever majority. She wants to ‘win back’ AfD voters. Na dann viel Glück! 😬 <a href="https://t.co/kghPfeKeP8">https://t.co/kghPfeKeP8</a></p>&mdash; Winnie Agbonlahor (@Winnosa) <a href="https://twitter.com/Winnosa/status/974213589681737728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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For her fourth term as chancellor, Merkel was elected by a margin of just nine votes.

Although the ballots are secret, the results indicated that some lawmakers within the governing grand coalition between her conservative Christian bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) voted against her, which would mean she only has a very thin negotiating margin should anything go wrong.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After years of denial, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally admitted in an interview that there are &quot;no-go areas&quot; in her country. <a href="https://t.co/B2PA0c1f43">https://t.co/B2PA0c1f43</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoGoZones?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoGoZones</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DouglasKMurray</a> <a href="https://t.co/5miQ6ql6Vc">pic.twitter.com/5miQ6ql6Vc</a></p>&mdash; Gatestone Institute (@GatestoneInst) <a href="https://twitter.com/GatestoneInst/status/974280158734704640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 15, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The German press in fact agrees that most politicians think it was time for Merkel to go, but that there was no one ready to replace her. Mr Schulz, the Social Democrat leader who returned from the European Parliament to lead the left to a win, proved to light a contender during the debates.

Source:

http://www.tobias-kreimer.de/inland/merkel-kanzlerin-wahl-farbe-bekennen-101.html