"As expected, Merkel's party failed and lost votes. The fact is that while Merkel was at the helm, the party completely changed its own principles," Breininger explained. "Twenty years ago this party defended the Christian values, now it has no specific principles left, it just turned into Merkel's party, but Merkel left the CDU."
"Why, then, would people vote for the CDU?! Many people do not need Merkel's party without Merkel," the politician added.
The latest estimates by the ZDF broadcaster point to a tie between the conservative union bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD), who are respectively at 24.5 percent and 26 percent. Breininger told Sputnik that the CDU "hardly scraped up 25 percent."
"The Social Democrats surprised many gaining quite a lot, the Greens have gained significantly too thanks to the advertising and to the support of the mass media. This reminds me [of] a form of hysteria and a religious devotion in one, there is no politics in this gain by the Greens," Breininger said.
Commenting on his party’s performance in the Sunday election, Breininger told Sputnik that it is too early to draw any permanent conclusions.
"The AfD party has lost 1.5 percent at the moment. This is of course the result of anti-propaganda, but these are first results. In some lands, the German AfD ranks second, for example. Overall, the conservative bloc is inching 50 percent and it is a good result," Breininger said.
Both CDU leader Armin Laschet and SPD leader Olaf Scholz said a three-way coalition was the likeliest outcome of the election, apparently ruling out a new Grand Coalition of their two parties. Laschet said he preferred an alliance of centrist parties.