Germany: governor elected with far-right help leaves the job

BERLIN (AP) — A German state governor installed with the help of a far-right party said Saturday he is resigning the post with immediate effect, three days after his election shook the country's politics.

Thomas Kemmerich's announcement came hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel fired a federal government official whose congratulations to the new governor of the eastern state of Thuringia angered Merkel's coalition partners. Leaders of Merkel's governing coalition were meeting in Berlin to discuss the tensions created by the fiasco.

Pro-business politician Kemmerich's election was only possible because the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, supported him in a vote in the state legislature — as did the regional branch of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, against the wishes of its national leadership.

Kemmerich's acceptance of AfD's votes appalled left-leaning parties and many in his own center-right camp. Merkel called his election “inexcusable.” The politician from the small Free Democrats announced a day after he was elected that he planned to step down, though he left unclear when.

That wasn't enough for many, including the center-left Social Democrats, the junior partners in Merkel's governing coalition.

Kemmerich said in a statement Saturday that he was resigning “with immediate effect” and paying back to the state all wages earned as a result of his election. It wasn't immediately clear what will now happen in Thuringia — parties there have been divided over whether a new state election should be held.

Earlier Saturday, Christian Hirte, a member of Merkel's CDU who was the government's commissioner for the formerly communist east and a deputy economy minister, tweeted that he resigned after Merkel told him he could no longer do the job. Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, confirmed his dismissal.

Hirte, a deputy leader of the CDU's Thuringia branch who sits in the national parliament, had congratulated Kemmerich on his “election as a candidate of the center,” tweeting that it showed the state had voted out its previous left-wing government, and making no mention of AfD's role.

Merkel's coalition partners, the Social Democrats, said Hirte couldn't stay in his job.

The mess also has prompted new criticism of the leadership of Merkel's successor as CDU chairwoman, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.