Germany’s CDU, the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has suffered historic losses in Berlin state elections on Sunday. The CDU took 17.6% of the vote, its worst-ever result in Berlin.
It has been ousted from the state governing coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats.
Meanwhile the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) made gains with a strong showing of 14% and will enter the state parliament for the first time.
Mrs Merkel’s popularity has waned since her decision last year to allow more than a million migrants into Germany.
It is the party’s second electoral blow in two weeks, having been pushed into third place by the AfD in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at the beginning of the month.
The Social Democrat SPD has emerged as the strongest party with about 22%, in spite of losing almost 7% of their voters.
The election Berlin, a city-state of 3.5 million people, was dominated by local issues including poor public services, crumbling school buildings, late trains and a housing shortage, as well as problems in coping with the migrant influx.