Angela Merkel is going through a rough patch. For Germany&’s Chancellor, Sunday&’s election in Berlin has come as a grave embarrassment. And the irony must appear to be still more bitter as alone in Europe, Merkel had accepted the migrants with an open heart as well as doors. As it turns out, that almost exemplary political courage has not paid dividend at the hustings. In a sense, history has been crafted; Berlin is likely to get the first leftwing triple-coalition government in its history;  Merkel&’s CDU party and the Social Democrats have both plummeted to their lowest result in the German capital. For the CDU, the slump is palpable; it has garnered barely 18 per cent of the vote.

The refugee issue, which has convulsed Europe in the wider canvas, has doubtless influenced the result. As much is plain from the fact that the anti-immigration party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is poised to enter the German capital&’s state parliament for the first time with 14.1 per cent of the votes. Indeed, there are two opposing “firsts” at the two ends of the political spectrum. While the capital faces the prospect of a left-wing coalition, the far-right – at another remove – will now set foot inside the state Parliament. The outlook for Germany must lie between the two very different extremes of democracy.

The AfD has after all won a double-digit score, though its performance need not immediately be translated into a sign of the return of the rightwing and the Nazis in Germany, as Berlin&’s mayor, Michael Müller, had warned before the election. Merkel&’s CDU will be the worst affected by the outcome. The Berlin result is the fourth blow in a row for the centre-right party, which came close to gaining an absolute majority at the federal level in 2013.

Unmistakable is the psephological pattern; going by the trends in the previous four elections, the vote-share of the established parties has declined while the AfD, founded three years ago, has been able to achieve double digits. Which is more than a little surprising for Berlin, the city that had transformed itself from the capital of Hitler&’s Nazi Germany into a fountainhead of freedom, tolerance, diversity and social cohesion. Local issues such as social justice, the economy, and the state of education did predominate, if the campaigning over rising rental prices and the fiasco over the new Brandenburg airport is any indication. Merkel&’s management of the refugee crisis or fears of terror attacks cannot be readily discounted, however. Which explains why the AfD&’s principal campaign plank has paid off. For now, Berlin, more than just an “old city”, is headed for a “grand coalition” between the centre-left and centre-right.