De Maiziere’s remarks suggested that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which currently still consists of a “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats but is likely to change soon, may be open to expanding the number of those religious holidays. “In places where there are many Muslims, why can’t we think about introducing a Muslim public holiday?” de Maiziere suggested.

The conservative minister was speaking at a campaign event for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Lower Saxony where regional elections took place on Sunday — and the backlash was immediate. First of all, Germany’s 16 regions are responsible for regulating their own holidays, which raised questions about whether the national government even has a say on the issue.

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The CDU chairman in the region of Lower Saxony, Bernd Althusmann, swiftly rejected de Maiziere's proposals, likely due to fears of a negative impact on Sunday’s election outcome.

“In general, I think that discussions about religious holidays are inappropriate during election campaigns,” he said. “Holidays have a long tradition in Germany. I don’t see a need to make changes to those established structures,” he said.

In last month’s nation elections, the CDU already lost many voters to the right wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, raising concerns within the party that Merkel may have moved it too far to the left and away from its conservative core support base. As it turned out, the CDU lost Sunday’s regional election, which could further weaken Merkel. It will likely strengthen her more right-wing critics who demand a return to traditional CDU positions, and a more skeptical stance on immigration.

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Some German conservatives fear that proposals like de Maiziere’s may tear the party apart by moving it more to the left — but not enough to persuade left-wing voters to cast their ballots in the party's favor — while alienating right-wing conservative voters further.

Merkel’s inner-party challengers point to Sunday’s election results in Austria as possible evidence that a turn to the right could benefit the CDU.

In Austria, the center-right People’s Party won Sunday’s election after mainly coopting the far-right’s policy proposals and repackaging them for mainstream voters. Following an election campaign that was almost completely dominated by immigration issues, the center-right party, led by Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, could now form a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party. Such a right-wing government would position Austria as a natural partner of other European countries that have recently undergone a similar shift, such as Poland or Denmark.

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Whether a shift to the right would benefit Merkel’s party also remains uncertain, though. The far-right AfD barely made it into Lower Saxony’s parliament on Sunday, gaining about 5 percent of the votes. Instead of supporting the far-right, voters opted for the Social Democrats, which are positioned further to the left than the CDU but have similarly struggled to reach a consensus on immigration policies.