The Political Party of Germany Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the CDU, has suffered historic losses in Berlin state elections.
It has been ousted from the state governing coalition with the centre-left social democrats.
Meanwhile the right-wing anti-migrant party alternative for Germany (AFD) made gains and will enter the state parliament for the first time.
Mrs Merkel’s popularity has waned since her decision in 2015 to allow more than a million migrants into Germany.
The CDU won 17.6% of the vote – its worst-ever result in Berlin.
It is the party’s second electoral blow in two weeks, having been pushed into third place by the AFD at the beginning of the month.
“There is no question, we didn’t get a good result in Berlin today,” said Michael Grosse-Broemer, a senior CDU politician. However, he blamed his party’s historic losses in Berlin primarily on local issues.
“I think it is dangerous to transfer the Berlin result to the federal level,” he told broadcaster ZDF.
The AfD has campaigned heavily on the migrant issue, playing to voters’ fears about the integration of the roughly 1 million migrants who entered Germany in 2015.
“From zero to double digits, that’s unique for Berlin. The grand coalition has been voted out – not yet at the federal level, but that will happen next year,” said AfD candidate Georg Pazderski to cheering supporters after the results.
