Merkel promises to mend fences after defeat to anti-migrant party

German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed on Monday to "win back trust" of voters angered by her open-door refugee policy, while admitting her share of responsibility for her conservatives' humiliating election loss to an anti-migrant party.

"Everyone now needs to think about how we can win back trust - most of all, of course, myself," Merkel said, speaking on the sidelines of a G20 summit in China a day after the election drubbing in her home state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

In a stinging defeat for Merkel in her home district one year ahead of federal elections, the upstart Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won 21.4 percent of the vote in their first election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern by campaigning hard against the chancellor’s policies on refugees.

“This isn’t pretty for us,” said Michael Grosse-Groehmer, one of Merkel’s top deputies in parliament in Berlin in a ZDF TV interview. “Those who voted for the AfD were sending a message of protest.”

Although the former Communist state is Germany's poorest and least populous, it carries a symbolic meaning as it is home to Merkel's constituency Stralsund. The polls were also held exactly a year after the German leader made the momentous decision to let in tens of thousands of Syrian and other migrants marooned in eastern European countries.

Calling it a "proud result," Leif-Erik Holm, AfD's lead candidate said: "And the cream of the cake is that we have left Merkel's CDU behind us... maybe that is the beginning of the end of Merkel's time as chancellor".

The AfD's victory mirrors success enjoyed by other anti-immigration parties across Europe, with France's Front National (FN) riding high in the polls and a far-right populist eyeing the presidency in Austria in elections on 2 October.

Merkel said she was "deeply dissatisfied with the outcome of the election," conceding that campaigning had been dominated by the influx of one million asylum seekers to Germany last year.

While she insisted that opening the borders to a mass influx of refugees and migrants a year ago was the "right" decision, she said that, as chancellor and party chief, "of course I am also responsible".

"I consider the fundamental decisions as right, but there is much to be done to win back trust and the topic of integration will play a huge role, as well as the repatriation of those who don't gain residency rights."

With its latest electoral success, the AfD, founded just over three years ago, is now represented in nine out of Germany's 16 regional parliaments, and is hoping for more gains when the capital Berlin goes to the polls in two weeks.