German voters have taken part in two state polls, in Lower Saxony and Hesse. Opinion polls suggest Angela Merkel's party, the conservative CDU, may lose its majority in Hesse - a politically and economically important state.
The current governor of Hesse, the CDU's Roland Koch, is running for a third term in office.
Mr Koch has provoked a storm of protest with calls for tougher sentences and the deportation of what he called "young criminal foreigners."
Mr Koch is known as the "crown prince" by conservatives.
But his campaign, which has focused on crime and immigration, has recently alienated "many voters.*"
*A member of European Americans United who also submits articles to Western Voices World News says the following about this article:
"But his campaign, which has focused on crime and immigration, has recently alienated many voters."
"Many voters", in this case, is extremely ambiguous, especially when reading the article from the perspective of a racially-conscious European-American conservative. "Many voters" most likely means non-Germans and German leftists. While many Europeans today unfortunately refuse to acknowledge the racial and ethnic component of crime and decadence, I feel that this stance from the CDU gives an official voice to many grumblings among native Germans today, especially in the older generations. My generation of Germans seems stubbornly attached to the notions of boundless racial harmony and egalitarianism. I could go on and on about that, but I'll save that for an article or another conversation, haha!
So I believe the BBC is implying that a German anti-foreigner stance is upsetting everyone, but that simply cannot be the case. It is important to note that the two states in question are located in western Germany, as opposed to eastern Germany. This is important because the nationalist party in Germany, the NDP, receives more support in the Eastern states than in the west, so if an "anti-foreigner" message is going to garner negative reactions, it makes sense that these reactions come from western German states, where the influx of Third World immigrants is higher and the NPD has less influence. -- A.L.