Chancellor Merkel’s CDU loses in national elections | NOW

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party lost on Sunday in two national elections in southwest Germany. In Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the CDU has not become the largest party, according to German media forecasts.

In Baden-Württemberg, the CDU is expected to win 24% of the vote, 3 points less than in the previous elections in 2016. In Rhineland-Palatinate, the CDU holds around 26.5% of the vote. The party obtained 31.8% of the vote in 2016. These are the worst results ever obtained by the CDU in both fields.

Observers say Merkel’s party is receiving the bill for the long crown lockdown and cases involving CDU politicians who have made a lot of money, among other things, from the mouth mask trade.

In prosperous Baden-Württemberg, the Greens have clearly remained the largest party with around 32% of the vote, and the first Green Prime Minister of Germany can continue to lead. The Social Democratic SPD, Merkel’s coalition partner in Berlin, resisted in Rhineland-Palatinate. The party won 35.2% of the vote.

Right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland lost a few percent in both states, meaning that the advance of this new party appears to have stopped at least in the southwest.

Polls in federal states serve as a barometer for national politics in this so-called super election year. More regional elections will follow and in six months all of Germany will go to the polls to elect a new parliament in Berlin. Merkel, head of government since 2005, will no longer stand for re-election in these elections.