“In places where there are many Muslims, why can’t we think about introducing a Muslim public holiday?” de Maiziere suggested. “In general, I think that discussions about religious holidays are inappropriate during election campaigns,” he said. Merkel’s inner-party challengers point to Sunday’s election results in Austria as possible evidence that a turn to the right could benefit the CDU. In Austria, the center-right People’s Party won Sunday’s election after mainly coopting the far-right’s policy proposals and repackaging them for mainstream voters. Whether or not a shift to the right would benefit Merkel’s party also remains uncertain, though.

Source: Washington Post October 16, 2017 10:19 UTC